Snacking Behaviours of Australian Young Adults: Secondary Analysis of the MYMeals Cross-Sectional Study

Jae Youn (Lisa) Han; Katrina Morris; Lyndal Wellard-Cole; Alyse Davies; Anna Rangan; Margaret Allman-Farinelli

doi:10.3390/nu15204471

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Snacking Behaviours of Australian Young Adults: Secondary Analysis of the MYMeals Cross-Sectional Study

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

Snacking Behaviours of Australian Young Adults: Secondary Analysis of the MYMeals Cross-Sectional Study

Jae Youn (Lisa) Han, Katrina Morris, Lyndal Wellard-Cole, Alyse Davies, Anna Rangan and Margaret Allman-Farinelli

Nutrients, Vol.15(20), pp.1-14

2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/nu15204471

PMID: 37892546

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Abstract

snack

snacking behviours

young adults

Australia

energy-dense nutrient-poor snack foods

discretionary foods

MyMeals

Snacking outside main meals may contribute to the high intakes of discretionary foods (i.e., unhealthful foods) among young adults. This study assessed the snacking behaviours of Australian young adults including the contribution of snacking to energy and nutrient intakes, the main foods consumed, and portion sizes. A secondary analysis of the MYMeals study of adults aged 18-30 years who consumed at least one snack food during the recording period (n = 889) was conducted. All food consumed over 3 consecutive days was recorded using a purpose-designed smartphone app. Snack foods contributed 13.2% of energy, 23.4% of total sugars, and 16.2% of saturated fat. Females consumed more energy (13.8% vs. 12.2%, p = 0.007) and total sugars (25.8% vs. 20.8%, p = 0.009), from snacking than males. Fruit (20.2%), chocolate (9.9%), cake-type desserts (8.4%), sweet biscuits (6.1%), and ice-cream-type desserts (5.6%) were the most frequently consumed snacks by young adults. The median portion sizes for the top five snack foods consumed were fruit-106 g (IQR: 73), chocolate-26 g (IQR: 36), cake-95 g (IQR: 88), sweet biscuits-26 g (IQR: 29), and ice cream-75 g (IQR: 42). The current findings may inform population-wide strategies to encourage healthful snacks such as fruit, inform portion control by individuals, and persuade the food industry to reduce the serving size of discretionary snack foods such as cake.

Details

Title: Snacking Behaviours of Australian Young Adults: Secondary Analysis of the MYMeals Cross-Sectional Study
Authors: Jae Youn (Lisa) Han - The University of Sydney
Katrina Morris - The University of Sydney
Lyndal Wellard-Cole - The University of Sydney
Alyse Davies - The University of Sydney
Anna Rangan - The University of Sydney
Margaret Allman-Farinelli (Corresponding Author) - The University of Sydney
Publication details: Nutrients, Vol.15(20), pp.1-14
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date published: 2023
DOI: 10.3390/nu15204471
ISSN: 2072-6643
PMID: 37892546
Copyright note: © 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Data Availability: Data sharing is not available for this study due to ethics.
Grants: Quantifying intake of food prepared outside home during emerging adulthood, LP150100831, Australian Research Council (Australia, Canberra) - ARC
Organisation Unit: School of Health - Nutrition & Dietetics
Language: English
Record Identifier: 991104336602621
Output Type: Journal article

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Web Of Science research areas: Nutrition & Dietetics

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