The good, the bad, and the ugly: Characteristics used by young, middle-aged, and older men and women, dieters and non-dieters to judge healthfulness of foods

The purpose of the present study was to explore to what extent gender, age, and dieting status predict the most important food characteristic that people use when judging the healthfulness of foods. Pilot study data indicated that both gender and dieting status were predictive of the food characteristics chosen as most important for health in college-aged men and women. In the present study, community-residing young, middle-aged, and older adults ranked food characteristics and indicated dieting status. Results indicated that “freshness” and “fat content” were by far the characteristics most frequently nominated as most important for food health regardless of age, gender, or dieting status. Further, dieting status was the most important factor that predicted participantsʹ rankings of food characteristics important for health. The fact that differences in dieting status (a transitory state) predicted the rankings of the food characteristics suggests that concepts concerning the health value of foods may frequently change. There is evidence that college-aged women generally rank food characteristics differently compared to college-aged men and older participants. Possibly, gender differences in judgements of food healthiness may become less apparent as we grow older; if so, college-aged women (more than men) likely make the greatest adjustment, in terms of judging foods, as they age most likely because of changes in the frequency or intensity of weight concern and dieting.