What Nutrition Means to You!

By Alia Holyfield

Method
Over a 5-day period I offered a survey through Survey Monkey using email to friends, family and coworkers as well as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn. 70 responses were collected in total. They Survey looks at common misconceptions around nutrition, where people go to get their nutrition information, and physical activity. Multiple choice questions and Likert scale were used as well. For demographics the age of participants was collected.

WHAT NUTRITION MEANS TO YOU!

BIO-323 ALIA HOLYFIELD

Results
Age Range of Participants n-70

WHAT NUTRITION MEANS TO YOU!

Results Common Perceptions of Nutrition and Health

BIO-323 ALIA HOLYFIELD

I dont pay too much attention to my diet when it comes to disease prevention, genetics really play the biggest role in overall health and how long I will live, so what is the point?

Neither Strongly Strongly Disagree Disagree Agree Disagree Agree or Agree 26.1% 55.1% 11.6% 4.3%
3

2.9%

WHAT NUTRITION MEANS TO YOU!

BIO-323 ALIA HOLYFIELD

When food shopping, if I see a label that states a certain food has been found to be beneficial based off a single study I am more likely to purchase that product over a comparable product without the study.
Neither Strongly Strongly Disagree Disagree Agree Disagree Agree or Agree

17.1%

25.7%

31.4% 22.9%

2.9%

Eating healthy is more expensive than eating unhealthy.

Neither Strongly Strongly Disagree Disagree Agree Disagree Agree or Agree 11.4% 10.0% 11.4% 47.1% 20.0%

WHAT NUTRITION MEANS TO YOU!

BIO-323 ALIA HOLYFIELD

Eating healthy or making more nutritious health choices requires me to give up my favorite foods for unappealing or weird food.
Neither Strongly Strongly Disagree Disagree Agree Disagree Agree or Agree

22.9%

47.1%

15.7% 12.9%

1.4%

Carbohydrates are bad. They are one of the largest reasons obesity is such an epidemic here in the United States.
Neither Strongly Strongly Disagree Disagree Agree Disagree Agree or Agree

11.4%

41.4%

21.4% 21.4%

4.3%

WHAT NUTRITION MEANS TO YOU!

BIO-323 ALIA HOLYFIELD

Supplements and enriched/fortified foods* are just as good as foods that contain vitamins and minerals naturally. As long as I am getting them from somewhere. (*Enriched/fortified food- Foods that have nutrients added back in after the refining process. Supplements- Vitamin or mineral tablets.)

Neither Strongly Strongly Disagree Disagree Agree Disagree Agree or Agree

21.4%

48.6%

18.6% 10.0%

1.4%

WHAT NUTRITION MEANS TO YOU!

BIO-323 ALIA HOLYFIELD

I trust what manufactures put on food packaging and labels because the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) regulates that information.
Neither Strongly Strongly Disagree Disagree Agree Disagree Agree or Agree 27.1% 28.6% 15.7% 25.7% 2.9%

Breakfast Option A

Breakfast Option B

When looking for information about nutrition and health the FIRST place I typically go is

The internet- government sites or research conducted through Universities and peer reviewed journals etc.

30%

The internet- WedMD, Wikipdedia or Wikihow, blogs etc.

Other

41.4%

2.9%

My Physician or other Health Professional (Nurse, Registered Dietitian) My trainer at the gym

All of the above depending

15.7

0%

Read the labels on the products Natural Food Store

Friends or family

10%

I attempt to get in at least 2 hours of moderate (brisk walking of about 100 steps per minute) exercise a week.

Overall this survey showed that those who tool it had a decent grasp on certain pitfalls and misconceptions around Nutrition. Most people generally disagreed with statements about diet not having a significant impact on disease prevention, that eating healthy meant giving up favorite foods for less appealing foods, and that whole foods with original nutrients are better than fortified food or supplements. It was interesting to find: 52% disagreed with the statement Carbohydrates are bad. They are one of the largest reasons obesity is such an epidemic here in the United States. But the other half was almost evenly split between (21.4%) not knowing and agreeing (25.7%). This was surprising to me. I think that I may have received different results (more agreement) had I simply put the statement Carbs are bad and not linked them to obesity specifically. Over half of those surveyed (67.1%) agreed that eating healthy is more expensive than eating unhealthy. 57.1% were either unsure or agreed that they would purchase a food product that has been found to be beneficial based off a single study over a comparable product without the study. This fell in line with what I expected and something actually I have done myself. 55.7% disagreed stating that they trust what manufacturers put on packaging and labels and the USDAs regulations of this. I was slightly surprised at how strongly people disagreed because before going through a Nutrition Course I was more trusting of food labels. Nutrient Density: 57 % of those survey recognized that Breakfast option A and B had the SAME amount of calories the rest (34.%) selected Breakfast A as higher is calories. When choosing to do this question I was sure that more people were going to pick Breakfast A as having more calories. I was surprised that most people recognized that they had the same.

Conclusion

Conclusion
I believe just by providing option 3 of Same amount of calories may have partly given the answer. Sources for Health and Nutrition information: A surprisingly low amount of people stated that they got their Nutrition or Health information from Health Professionals (15.7%). I was expecting higher since I stated HEALTH and Nutrition information. This survey showed the preferred method of finding Health and Nutrition information is through internet based resources (71%). o With 41.4% preferring websites like WebMD, Blogs and Wikipedia government, university and peer-reviewed journals. I found this concerning, especially if almost a third of the respondents were most likely in the health care field. 0% of people get their health information from the gym trainer. Physical Activity: 87.1% stated that they were had some chance of getting the recommended physical activity per week. 46% stated that they were somewhat likely to get the recommended level of physical activity per week. Limitations: I was limited on the amount of demographic questions I was able to ask. There is a 10 question limit in Survey Monkeys free version and I focused on the statements on certain nutrition assumptions. However, it is a good sample size (n=70) and most of the people surveyed consisted of adults between 18 and 40 years of age. I also blasted the survey out through email to family, friends, coworkers, on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. On Twitter I focused on nursing group accounts and I did that 2 days after Facebook, LinkedIn and emailing the survey out. I received a good 20 surveys from Twitter .

Conclusion
From Twitter there is a very good possibility that of those 20 people many were nurses. I do not believe that that skewed the results because I used Facebook first and got about 50 responses and the overall percentages did not change. All in all this was a very basic survey that had many limitations that kept it far from being scientifically sound but it definitely gave me a good view of what my friends, coworkers and family think when it comes to nutrition assumptions and where they get their information.