Self-selected diets: Exploring the factors driving food choices and satisfaction with dietary variety among independent adults

Food choices determine the nutrients and other substances that build and maintain our bodies as well as consumer demand for food products. People choose specific foods, and those choices are strongly influenced by many factors. Our goal was to examine the reasons participants gave for choosing each of the foods they consumed during a 4-week study, how those influencers differed for different food classes, and whether the influencers predicted satisfaction with their dietary variety. Participants maintained a 28-day online food diary. Each week, they rated their satisfaction with the variety in their diets and the impact of 13 choice influencers on each of the foods they consumed. We recorded the frequency at which each choice influencer was rated as having high, moderate, low, or no impact on selection. We grouped each food into one of 17 food classes to weigh the importance of each influencer for consuming each of these food classes. Liking, hunger, and convenience were most frequently selected as having a high impact on food choice. The presence on a menu, only thing served, and special occasion were most frequently selected as having no impact on food choice. Liking was generally the highest rated choice influencer across food classes. Liking had high to moderate impact on the consumption of healthier food classes such as the fruits and vegetable classes at similar proportions as less healthy food classes such as the alcohol and desserts classes. Satisfaction with weekly variety was best predicted by liking; convenience generally reduced satisfaction.