Smart Woman: American Eating Habits
By: Lane Stone
Updated: March 14, 2012
It finds that what you eat may depend upon where you live, your age, race, gender, income and education level.
There are five different eating patterns.
Southern eating habits consists of fried, processed meats, and sugar sweetened beverages.
Conveniet habits includes Chinese and Mexican food, pasta dishes, pizza, soup, frozen meals and take-out.
A healthy habit is mostly fruits, vegetables and grains.
Sweets consist of large amounts of sweet desserts and snacks.
Alcohol habits include moderate alcohol consumption, lean protein and salads.
The researchers asked more than 21,000 adults over the age of 45 how frequently they ate foods from a list of 110 choices.
They found that people who ate the southern diet were more likely to live in the southeast, to be African-American, male, make less than 35,000 dollars a year, and likely did not graduate from college.
The researchers found people over age 75 usually were not convenience eaters and blacks tended not to fall into the alcohol category.
The next step for these researchers is to look at how these eating patterns affect a person's risk for stroke.
