UM explores diet of low-income youths

ORONO – Most of us know we should eat several servings of fruits and vegetables a day as part of a healthful diet – yet few of us do it. Researchers don’t understand why we are so loath to change our eating habits.

That’s why Adrienne White, a professor in the University of Maine’s department of food science and human nutrition, has helped to design a 10-state research project that brings together ivory-tower academics and in-the-trenches nutrition counselors in an effort to improve the eating habits of the hard-to-reach population of low-income young adults.

White and her research partner, Nellie Hedstrom of the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, are recruiting 200 low-income 18- to 24-year-olds from across the state to participate in a yearlong survey of their eating habits and the factors that affect them.

White said that the best chance to reverse generations of unhealthful food patterns is when young people move into their own homes and make independent food choices. But the economically disadvantaged face special challenges to changing their diets and are the most in need of some creative teaching.

White and Hedstrom are exploring the possibility that people make a mental distinction between fruits and vegetables and are motivated differently to include them in their diets.

For example, fruits may appeal because people perceive them as healthful alternatives to other foods, or because they’re good for getting over a cold, or because eating an apple sets a better example for a child than chowing down on a package of HoHos.

Vegetables, on the other hand, are seen as a healthful, low-cost food, not especially appealing, but an ally in the battle for weight control. In seeking to motivate people to increase their intake of these two foods, White said, it’s important to tap into these perceptions separately.

Additionally, people go through different stages in their willingness or ability to change habits. Attempting to push a consumer to make concrete, sustainable changes in diet before he or she is at the “action” stage is a recipe for failure, White said.

Study subjects will be surveyed on their eating habits, their decision-making practices and their readiness to change when they enter the study. For six months, half will receive periodic printed materials tailored to their attitudes and situations, as well as phone calls from nutrition educators. For the last six months, they’ll get no further information.

A control group will receive standard information that does not address either readiness to change or differences in attitudes toward fruits and vegetables.

Both groups will be resurveyed for their eating practices and attitudes four months into the study and again at the 12-month mark.

The national study results will be compiled and analyzed at the University of Wisconsin, one of the 10 land-grant institutions participating. Other universities are located in Rhode Island, New York, Nebraska, Oregon, Alabama, Iowa, Kansas and Michigan. Results will be used to develop and evaluate teaching materials for use by Extension nutritionists and other counselors.

Subjects in the study will be paid $40 for their participation. For more information or to volunteer for the study, call 1-888-328-1223.