The Keystone Forum on Away-From-Home Foods: Opportunities for Preventing Weight Gain and Obesity

Over the past two decades in the United States, obesity has become a public health crisis of epidemic proportions. At present, approximately 64% of all U.S. adults are overweight, including 30% who are obese. Overweight and obesity are associated with increased morbidity and mortality, and also exact significant economic costs. The medical expenses attributable to overweight and obesity are estimated to have reached as high as $92.6 billion per year—roughly 9.1% of total U.S. medical expenditures.1

A number of efforts to address and reverse this public health crisis have been and are being undertaken in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. This report is the final work product of one such effort—the Keystone Forum on Away-From-Home Foods: Opportunities for Preventing Weight Gain and Obesity.

The Keystone Forum was requested and funded by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The forum brought together a wide diversity of participants to develop joint recommendations for action. The participants included representatives from industry, government agencies, civic-sector organizations, and academia.

Incorporating Away-From-Home Food into a Healthy Eating Plan

In our often time-pressed society, convenience is a way of life for many individuals. Foods and meals prepared outside of the home are an increasingly important part of the American diet. This is a trend that has coincided with a dramatic rise in the prevalence of obesity. While food, wherever prepared, is not the only factor affecting body weight, away-from-home food should be an important consideration for people aiming to maintain or lose weight. A growing body of literature indicates that the eating of away-from-home food can be a factor influencing energy intake. Informed choices pertaining to away-from-home food could help reduce calorie over-consumption and aid in weight management.

Let’s Eat Out: Americans Weigh Taste, Convenience, and Nutrition

Whether eating out or buying carry-out,Americans are consuming more and more of their calories from full-service and fast-food restaurant fare. The share of daily caloric intake from food purchased and/or eaten away from home increased from 18 percent to 32 percent between the late 1970s and the middle 1990s, and the away-from-home market grew to account for about half of total food expenditures in 2004, up from 34 percent in 1974. Analysis of a survey of U.S. consumers indicates that respondents want convenience and an enjoyable dining experience, but the desire for health also plays a role as does diet-health knowledge.

The Impact of Food Away From Home on Adult Diet Quality

Food away from home (FAFH) has been associated with poor diet quality in many studies. It is diffi cult, however, to measure the effect of FAFH on diet quality since many unobserved factors, such as food preferences and time constraints, infl uence not just our choice of where to eat but also the nutritional quality of what we eat. Using data from 1994-96 and 2003-04, this study applies fi xed-effects estimation to control for such unobservable influences and finds that, for the average adult, FAFH increases daily caloric intake and reduces diet quality. The effects vary depending on which meals are consumed away from home. On average, breakfast away from home decreases the number of servings of whole grains and dairy consumed per 1,000 calories and increases the percent of calories from saturated and solid fat, alcohol, and added sugar (SoFAAS) in a day. Dinner away from home reduces the number of servings of vegetables consumed per 1,000 calories for the average adult. Breakfast and lunch away from home increase calories from saturated fat and SoFAAS on average more among dieters than among nondieters. Some of the overall negative dietary effects decreased between 1994-96 and 2003-04, including those on whole grain, sodium, and vegetable consumption.

Profiling Food Consumption in America

American at the beginning of the 21st century are consuming more food and several hundred more calories per person per day than did their counterparts in the late 1950s (when per capita calorie consumption was at the lowest level in the last century), or even in the 1970s. The aggregate food supply in 2000 provided 3,800 calorie per person per day, 500 calories above the 1970 level and 800 calories above the record low in 1957 and 1958.