Nutrition attitudes, dietary intake and supplement practices in a health conscious population

Abstract

A group of supplement users (N=243; 139 females, 104 males) and non-users (N=262; 111 females, 151 males) were examined with respect to nutrition attitudes and dietary intake. Nutrition attitudes were assessed utilizing the “Nutrition Concern” scale of the Nutrition Attitude Survey. Dietary intake was based on 24 hr recalls. Subjects were healthy adults (mean age = 44.1 ± 14.1 yrs) participating in the RENO Diety-Heart Study. The sample included equal numbers of normal weight and obese individuals; 40.6% had at least some college education and the majority rated their health as good (47%) or excellent (43%). It was hypothesized that within this self reported healthy group, supplement users would exhibit a higher degree of health/nutrition concern that would translate into higher scores on the “Nutrition Concern” scale and a healthier diet, i.e. one that provided per day less than 30% of kcals from fat, less than 300 mg cholesterol and met at least 23's RDA for calcium, iron and vitamin C. To ascertain differences between types of supplementers, the supplementer users group was divided into multiple vitamin users, vitamin + mineral users, and users of single supplements such as vitamin C. Measures of healthiness were not related to type of supplementation. However, differences were noted between supplement users and nonusers: A significant difference was noted for the “Nutrition Concern” scale with supplement users scoring higher, (p ≤ 0.01). Supplement users also had a slightly lower, but significant (p ≤ 0.03) intake of fat kcals (36% vs 38%). In addition, even though the differences were not significant, users tended to consume less cholesterol (305 vs 323 mg), more vitamin C (111 vs 103 mg) and calcium (865 vs 834 mg); iron intakes were comparable (14 vs 15 mg). Hence, supplement use may relate to healthy diets.