Consumers not well-equipped to make healthier choices when eating out-of-home

Four Faulty Perceptions About Balanced Diet Among Consumers

26 May 2006
Hong Kong

People the world over and especially in Asia, are placing their dining needs to restaurants, street sellers, cafes, fast food shops and convenience stores.  But concurrent with the rise in out-of-home dining has been an increase in population weight gain.

To better understand consumers choices in out of home eating, ACNielsen launched LifeChoices, a qualitative study, covering 12 markets in Asia, and 21 worldwide.  They conducted more than 80 focus groups, among young working women and mothers with children under 10 who bought food and drinks out of home on a regular basis. (Table 1)

As the focus groups reveal, women see the out of home food industry as an enabler of modern life and without it, would not be able to fulfill their roles. While they have many good general principles for healthy eating, they are not well-equipped to make accurate distinctions between the calorie values of different foods in the many varied out-of-home eating situations they are faced with in their daily lives. 

In almost all countries covered in the LifeChoices study, women were very motivated to eat more healthily, specifically to prevent weight gain and for their family’s well being.

“However this overall awareness may not reliably translate into a correspondingly ‘healthy’ choice when they are under time pressure and need to feed themselves and their families in a hurry.  When presented with a range of out-of-home food and drink options, they are often unable to say which would be higher or lower in calories,” said Ms Fanny Chan, Managing Director, ACNielsen, Hong Kong.“ Studies have shown a relationship in some markets between out of home eating, and population weight gain, but the picture is mixed.”

The study also shows a clear difference in perception between Asian and western women about out of home eating. In Asia, some no longer cook at home at all, as the food they can buy outside is thought to be cheaper, more acceptable to the family and more varied than they could make themselves.  Western women generally did not believe the food they can buy out of home is healthy, varied or inexpensive enough to skip homemade dishes.  In Hong Kong, there were impressions among mothers that their children are not as excited about the home-made dishes as if they were eating out or ordering pizzas!

The FOUR faulty perceptions

The ACNielsen study found messages such as “eat a balanced diet” are well absorbed and people have practices they follow to achieve this.  However, false concepts are everywhere.

1. Following eating out of the home – which is usually regarded as ‘less healthy’ – people may balance it by attempting to eat less food, or ‘more healthily’, for the next meal or the next day and ‘balance a greasy meal by drinking hot tea’, and ‘balance healthy food with a sour food or drink’. These ‘balance’ attempts are just unlikely to lead to a lower overall energy intake afterall!
2. The guidelines people follow to choose healthier foods don’t always lead them to the best choices for lower calories.  Many women were under the impression that Asian foods were less likely to lead to weight gain than Western foods.  When shown the actual calorie values of many different types of Asian and Western foods together, they were often surprised - taking a dish of Chinese fried vermicelli with seafood as examples, the calories contained are equivalent to five cheese hamburgers.  If one thought the calorie intake would be less by skipping a hamburger and grabbing a baked pancake from a local Chinese hawker instead, she is totally wrong as the calories level for both is just the same!
3. Another misperception is that many believe that foods make them put on weight because of what it is, rather than how much there is.  Hence it is likely that they often over-emphasize the role of portion content and don’t put enough emphasis on portion size.
4. In Asia, women generally had not experienced excessive weight gain themselves and tended to regard obesity and health problems as only a distant threat and it is more about the fear of disfigurement or of being too different, rather than a health issue.

“Given the growing importance of out-of-home eating, the lack of ability to assess relative calorie values of foods and drinks could put us at risk of obesity over our lifetimes,” Chan added.

Asian women, like women worldwide, believe weight gain is a personal responsibility.  Among other causes like lack of exercise, and genetics, Asian women link the increase in obesity to changes in food culture.  Not only an increase in Western fast food, and snacks in the diet, but also, as living standards improve, local foods that used to be taken only on special occasions are more widely available, affordable and frequently consumed.

More help needed

“Consumers see the solution to this problem being based around information, education, increased choices, and greater personal responsibility,“ continued Chan. “Free choice in food and drinks is a very personal issue and one that people care deeply about.  They want to be left alone to make their own decisions – or mistakes, if that’s how they feel that day. Yet it is encouraging to see more restaurants offering ‘healthy’ options for their patrons, more of such will definitely help raise the awareness of healthy eating.” 

The ACNielsen | LifeChoices study found that there are opportunities for out-of-home food retailers, manufacturers and organizations responsible for health communications, to work with consumers to help them manage their out-of-home eating and drinking in ways less likely to lead to obesity. 

About ACNielsen | LifeChoices

LifeChoices 2005 is a global ACNielsen study of how habitual out-of-home eating and drinking behaviour becomes established; the heuristics underlying them, and the impact of weight gain concerns in modifying choice.

About ACNielsen

ACNielsen, a VNU business, is the world’s leading marketing information provider.  Offering services in more than 100 markets, the unit provides measurement and analysis of marketplace dynamics and consumer attitudes and behavior.  Clients rely on ACNielsen’s market research, proprietary products, analytical tools and professional service to understand competitive performance, to uncover new opportunities and to raise the profitability of their marketing and sales campaigns.  To learn more, visit www.acnielsen.com.

Table 1: The 21 Markets Covered by ACNielsen | LifeChoices Study