Abstract
The objective was to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on eating behaviors of a cross section of the US adult population. Participants (N=844) completed a survey via Amazon Mechanical Turk which evaluated frequency of consumption of five food categories - mixed dishes, salty, sweet, creamy foods and beverages during perceived stress. Physical, emotional and psychological self-care and demographics were also collected. Males eating behaviors especially mixed dishes, sweet foods, and creamy foods decreased when stressed. However, in females there was an increase in the consumption of sweet and creamy foods. When compared to their counterpart, there was a reduction in food choices among minorities and Hispanics. Participants with higher BMI had increased eating behaviors of mixed dishes, salty, and sweet foods. The physical self-care scale revealed there was limited consumption of sweet foods but the psychological self-care demonstrated that there was an increase in creamy food intake
Highlights
According to the American Institute of Stress, Hans Selye coined stress as the body’s non-specific response to demands caused by any stimuli
Of the 1023 surveys completed through Amazon Mechanical Turk, 844 of the participants resided in the United States (US)
The internal consistency of the scales was measured by Cronbach’s Alpha, with the five eating behavior scales ranging from a low of 0.54 for beverages to a high of 0.80 for sweet foods, with mixed dishes (0.73), creamy foods (0.73), and salty foods scales (0.70) falling in between
Summary
According to the American Institute of Stress, Hans Selye coined stress as the body’s non-specific response to demands caused by any stimuli (i.e., pleasant or unpleasant).
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