Nutritional quality of foods at and away from home

Food Review, May-August, 1997 by Biing-Hwan Lin, Elizabeth Frazao

Overall, 27 percent of meals and snacks (eating occasions) were away from home, and they provided 34 percent of total calories (table 1). This suggests that people either eat larger amounts when they eat out or they eat higher calorie foods -- or both. Fast-food outlets accounted for 10 percent of all eating occasions, and provided 14 percent of total dietary calories and 41 percent of the away-from-home calories. Restaurants followed with 5 percent of all eating occasions, 8 percent of total calories, and 24 percent of away-from-home calories.

The away-from-home share of total calories initially increases with age. Preschoolers obtained 24 percent of their total calories away from home, while adult males age 18-39 obtained 45 percent of their calories away from home -- the highest among Americans. As adults get older, however, they eat at home more often and obtain a smaller share of calories away from home. For example, senior females obtained only 20 percent of their calories away from home and senior males obtained 22 percent.

Children age 6-11 obtained more of their away-from-home calories from schools than from fast-food outlets, restaurants, or other places, whereas adolescents obtained more of their away-from-home calories from fast-food places than schools (table 1). Fast foods provided 15 to 23 percent of total calories consumed by adults age 18-39 -- the highest among Americans. Fast-food places provided adults age 40-59 with 12 percent of total calories, more than the 10 percent provided by restaurants. But restaurants provided 8 percent of calories for seniors -- a greater portion than fast-food places.

Higher Fat and Cholesterol in Away-From-Home Foods

Because the amounts and types of foods consumed tend to differ depending on the source of food (home, fast food, and restaurant), we control for these differences by comparing nutrient densities -- the amount of nutrients provided on the basis of 1,000 calories.

Compared with home foods, away-from-home foods had, on average, higher fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol densities (table 2). Home foods provided average fat and saturated fat densities of 34.7 grams and 12.0 grams per 1,000 calories, respectively, compared with 41.8 grams and 14.3 grams per 1,000 calories for away-from-home foods. The higher fat and saturated fat densities for away-from-home foods occur for all age groups and both genders (tables 3 and 4).

[TABULAR DATA 2 NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]

On average, restaurant foods had higher fat and lower saturated fat densities than fast foods, although fast foods consumed by children had a slightly higher fat density than restaurant foods consumed by children (tables 2 and 3). School meals and school snacks eaten by children had the highest saturated fat density of all, higher than the saturated fat density of fast foods consumed by children and adults. In june 1994, USDA put forth the School Meals Initiative for Healthy children to address the high fat levels and other nutritional problems in school meals and in children's diets. But since implementation began during the 1996-97 school year, the 1995 CSFII data do not yet reflect changes in school meals.