Habitual Behavior in American Eating Patterns: The Role of Meal Occasions

Abstract

Based on literatures in cognitive resource conservation and contextual cue consistency, we study two types of habits—carryover and baseline—in the consumption of food nutrients. Carryover habit obtains when the level of a nutrient consumed in preceding meals influences its consumption in the current meal. Baseline habit obtains when a nutrient's consumption systematically differs across meals. We test our hypotheses via a hierarchical linear model using a food consumption diary panel. Findings support our carryover habit and baseline habit dichotomy, as well as our predictions that carryover habit is stronger at breakfast and that within-meal carryover effects are stronger than across-meal carryover effects.

Attention, Cognitive Processes, Health, Nutrition, Safety, Time, Hierarchical Models