Eating style differences between hyperlipidemic men and women

Abstract

Two hundred eighty-nine hyperlipidemic participants (200 men and 89 women) from the Boeing Airplane Company completed an eating style questionnaire at the beginning of an eight week class series to learn the NCEP Step-Two eating plan. Participants also completed a baseline 4-day food record (4DFR) prior to entering class. The eating questionnaire contained 10 items pertaining to meal frequency, shopping, food preparation, and eating out practices. Forty percent of men and 43% of women indicated they skip breakfast more than 50% of the time. These participants also reported a higher % of kcals from fat on baseline 4DFR's (36.3% vs. 32.7% fat, p=.009, for men and 36.1% vs. 33.0 fat, p=.058, for women). Whereas 92% men and 90% women indicated they eat lunch and dinner at least 5 days per week. Women reported shopping for food an average of 1.7 times per week compared to men who shopped less at 1.3 times per week (p=.005). Women also reported preparing food more often than men (p=.002). Of women, 67% reported preparing food 7–21 times per week while 71% men reported 0–6 times per week. In addition, women described work day meal preparation from often to always in a hurry more than men (p=.01). However, no difference between women and men was found for non work days (p=.43). Determining eating style patterns for meal frequency, shopping, meal preparation may be useful for designing and implementing NCEP Step-Two meal plans and identifying added sources of fat in the baseline diet.