Away From Home Food And Diet Quality

This is a print on demand edition of a hard to find publication. This study includes estimates of how each child¿s consumption of food away from home, food from school, and caloric sweetened beverages affects that child¿s diet quality and calorie consumption. Compared with meals and snacks prepared at home, food prepared away from home increases caloric intake of children, esp. older children. Each food-away-from-home meal adds 108 more calories to daily total intake among children ages 13-18 than a snack or meal from home. Both food away from home and all food from school also lower the daily diet quality of older children. Among younger children, the effect of food from school on caloric intake and diet quality does not differ significantly from that of food from home. Charts and tables.

Based on 2 days of dietary data and panel data methods, this study includes estimates of how each child's consumption of food away from home, food from school (which includes all foods available for purchase at schools, not only those offered as part of USDA reimbursable meals), and caloric sweetened beverages affects that child's diet quality and calorie consumption. Compared with meals and snacks prepared at home, food prepared away from home increases caloric intake of children, especially older children. Each food-away-from-home meal adds 108 more calories to daily total intake among children ages 13-18 than a snack or meal from home; all food from school is estimated to add 145 more calories. Both food away from home and all food from school also lower the daily diet quality of older children (as measured by the 2005 Healthy Eating Index). Among younger children, who are more likely than older children to eat a USDA school meal and face a more healthful school food environment, the effect of food from school on caloric intake and diet quality does not differ significantly from that of food from home.

Food away from home (FAFH) has been associated with poor diet quality in many studies. For the average adult, FAFH increases daily caloric intake and reduces diet quality. On average, breakfast away from home decreases the number of servings of whole grains and dairy consumed per 1,000 calories and increases the percent of calories from saturated and solid fat, alcohol, and added sugar in a day. Dinner away from home reduces the number of servings of vegetables consumed per 1,000 calories for the average adult. Some of the overall negative dietary effects decreased between 1994-96 and 2003-04, including those on whole grain, sodium, and vegetable consumption. Charts and tables.

Food away from home (FAFH) is a sizeable component of total food consumption and the nutritional intake of U.S. adults and children. FAFH also, therefore, constitutes a large and growing portion of the food budget. In 2009, the annual average household expenditure on FAFH was $2,619 or approximately 41 percent of the food budget for an average U.S. household, compared with $1,320, or approximately 29 percent of the food budget in 1984. Recent findings suggest that FAFH may contribute significantly to obesity and poor dietary quality in the United States. Given the potential significance of FAFH for dietary quality and nutrition, policies designed to influence nutritional outcomes should address the role of FAFH. This book estimates the demand for desegregated FAFH and Food at Home (FAH) products, as elements of an unconditional system of demand equations in a two-stage budgeting process. Statistically significant cross-price relationships, between and within groups of foods, using the first and second stage estimates, underscore the potential usefulness of considering all foods, not just a subset of foods, in evaluating policies targeting nutrition and health outcomes.

Among children aged 6 to 18 years, away-from-home foods are most likely to come from fast food outlets, restaurants and schools. Increased consumption of such foods may be a cause of being overweight, or it may just be correlated with other factors that increase the risk of being overweight, such as individual food preferences and access to myriad foot outlets. Consumption of caloric sweetened beverages, which is associated with both overweight and eating out, may contribute to the effects of away-from-home foods on caloric intake and diet quality. This new book examines the effects of both commercially prepared food away from home and all food from school on the diets of children.