Self-reported food choices before and during COVID-19 lockdown

Abstract

Stressful situations can cause changes in individual food choices, most notably, choices of highly rewarding foods that are high in fat or sugar. Few studies have examined how a population's food choices change during a country-wide stress-inducing event such as the beginning of the COVID-19 stay-at-home orders in the United States. Food data from a digital behavior change weight loss program, which includes an interface for logging meals, were analyzed to assess self-reported food choices from March 5-March 11 ("pre-COVID") and during the first week of the COVID-19 lockdown (March 12-March 18; "during-COVID"). The final sample consisted of 381,564 participants: 318,076 (83.4%) females, the majority who were aged 45-65 years (45.2%). Results indicate that self-reported servings of fresh fruit and vegetable intake decreased from pre- to during-COVID, while intake of red meat and starchy vegetables increased. More men than women increased their intake of red meat and processed meat. There was less overall change in fruit and vegetable consumption in participants aged 66 and older, compared to younger participants (aged 18-35). The percentage of older participants who reported lean meat and starchy vegetable intake increased, but these groups had a negligible change in younger subjects. More subjects aged 18-35 years reduced their intake of caffeine, desserts, lean meat and salads compared to older participants. No changes were observed in terms of snack or alcoholic beverage intake logged. In conclusion, this study of 381,564 US participants revealed that intake of particular food groups were altered during the first weeks of COVID lockdown.

Susceptibility to increased high energy dense sweet and savoury food intake in response to the COVID-19 lockdown: The role of craving control and acceptance coping strategies

“…Of note too, although not the primary focus of this report, the results reported here showed increased intake of fruits and vegetables during the COVID-19 lockdown. This differs to previous findings reporting reduced fruit and vegetable intake adults (Matsungo & Chopera, 2020;Mitchell et al, 2020). This might be due to the timing that the survey was administered.…”

“…Previous studies assessed changes to food intake in the first few weeks of lockdown (e.g. Mitchell et al, 2020), whereas in this study participants completed the survey during the later phases of the lockdown. It is possible that there was more stability in food supply and more adaptation to the lockdown which supported more fruit and vegetable intake in this study compared to previous studies.…”

“…Early evidence from multiple countries across the world have reported dietary changes in response to the COVID-19 lockdowns (Allabadi, Dabis, Aghabekian, Khader & Khammash, 2020;Ammar et al, 2020;Deschasaux-Tanguy et al, 2020;Di Renzo et al, 2020;Matsungo & Chopera, 2020;Mitchell, Yang, Behr, Deluca & Schaffer, 2020;Robinson, Gillespie & Jones, 2020;Sidor & Rzymski, 2020). Importantly, in most studies not all participants report increased food intake in response to the COVID-19 lockdowns.…”

Changes in the behavioural determinants of health during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic: gender, socioeconomic and ethnic inequalities in 5 British cohort studies

“…3 4 The behaviours investigated here include physical activity, diet, alcohol, and sleep 5 -likely key contributors to existing health inequalities 6 and indirectly implicated in inequalities arising due to COVID-19 given their link with outcomes such as obesity and diabetes. 7 While empirical evidence of the impact of COVID-19 on such behaviours is emerging, [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26] it is currently difficult to interpret for multiple reasons. First, generalising from one study location and/or period of data collection to another is complicated by the vastly different societal responses to COVID-19 which could plausibly impact on such behaviours, such as restrictions to movement, access to restaurants/pubs, and access to support services to reduce substance use.…”

“…which was not certified by peer review) preprint The copyright holder for this this version posted September 17, 2020.; https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.Pre-and during COVID-19 lockdown distributions of health-related behaviours, by cohort. Note: dark green shows overlap, estimates are weighted to account for survey non-response; alcohol consumption was derived as >36,[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15], no drinks per month..CC-BY 4.0 International licenseIt is made available under a is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. (which was not certified by peer review) preprint The copyright holder for this this version posted September 17, 2020. ; https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.Differences in multiple health behaviours during COVID-19 lockdown (May 2020) compared with prior levels, according to gender, education attainment, and ethnicity: a meta-analysis of 5 cohort studies.…”