Dietary supplementation, naturalistic values and attitudes to the food supply among Australian women

Abstract

The results are discussed in relation to two postulated causal pathways, a stress‐symptom, and a natural‐foods one, of dietary supplementation practices. The study showed views of the food supply to be related to anomy, naturalistic and technological aspects of the modern world. A survey instrument designed to assess naturalistic and technological values orientations, food beliefs and dietary supplementation practices was administered to a random sample of women in Adelaide, South Australia. Four hundred and eighteen women responded, a response rate of 65%. Regular users of dietary supplements had more positive opinions of natural foods (p < 0.001) than nonsupplementers. They also evaluated naturalistic aspects of modern life more positively than nonsupplementers. In addition, several relationships were observed between their values orientations and food beliefs.