Abstract
Bean consumption is known to lower blood cholesterol and postprandial blood glucose. With higher chronic disease risk, low-income men could theoretically benefit from increased bean intakes. The study objective was to explore low-income men’s food behaviors, bean health benefit awareness, and bean consumption practices and preferences. Seventy-one low-income men aged 18–65 years (µ 41 ± 12.7; 53% white, 16% black, 31% Hispanic) completed a survey on health risks, food behaviors, bean health knowledge, attitudes toward dry and canned beans, and bean preferences. Eighty-seven percent had one or more health risk factors of physical inactivity, smoking, or obesity. Most men compared food prices, and thought about healthy food choices for their families, but few planned meals or read nutrition facts labels. White men had significantly higher bean health benefit knowledge than black or Hispanic men (p < 0.01). Most men liked the taste of beans, disagreed dry beans took too long to prepare, and 79% ate them at least 2–3 times per month. Forty-nine percent agreed beans caused intestinal gas. Improving men’s awareness of the health benefits of beans as well as leveraging existing positive attitudes may be useful approaches to increase bean consumption among low-income and minority male populations.
Highlights
The leading causes of death among adult men in the United States (US) remain heart disease (24.4%)and cancer (21.9%) [1]
Sixty percent of the respondents were employment center clients, with 22% recruited from WIC and 13% from Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP)
There were no significant differences by race/ethnicity for food security, body mass index (BMI), exercise frequency, smoking, health care coverage, or routine checkup frequency (Table 1)
Summary
The leading causes of death among adult men in the United States (US) remain heart disease (24.4%)and cancer (21.9%) [1]. The leading causes of death among adult men in the United States (US) remain heart disease (24.4%). The risk factors for these diseases as well as type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and obesity are mediated by lifestyle behaviors such as diet, physical activity, regular medical checkups, and not smoking [2]. Wage earnings and race/ethnicity have a considerable impact on health and disease outcomes [4]. Low-income men have increased prevalence of health risk factors including physical inactivity, smoking, and obesity, as well as increased chronic disease rates such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer [4,5]. Disease rates are greater in blacks and Hispanics than non-Hispanic whites, yet within race/ethnicity groups, rates are linked inversely to income [1,4,5]
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