what nutrition means to you!_white paper_alia holyfield

7/28/2019 What Nutrition Means to You!_White Paper_Alia Holyfield

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What Nutrition Means to You!By Alia Holyfield

MethodOver a 5-day period I offered a survey through Survey Monkey using email to friends,

family and coworkers as well as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn. 70 responses were

collected in total. They Survey looks at common misconceptions around nutrition,

where people go to get their nutrition information, and physical activity. Multiple

choice questions and Likert scale were used as well. For

demographics the age of

participants was

collected.


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BIO-323 ALIA HOLYFIELDWHAT NUTRITION MEANS TO YOU!

Age Range of Participants

n-70

Results


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I dont pay too much attention to my dietwhen it comes to disease prevention,

genetics really play the biggest role inoverall health and how long I will live, so

what is the point?

StronglyDisagree

Disagree NeitherDisagreeor Agree

Agree StronglyAgree

26.1% 55.1% 11.6% 4.3% 2.9%

Results

Common Perceptions of

Nutrition and Health


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When food shopping, if I see a label thatstates a certain food has been found to be

beneficial based off a single study I am morelikely to purchase that product over a

comparable product without the study.

StronglyDisagree

DisagreeNeither

Disagreeor Agree

AgreeStronglyAgree

17.1% 25.7% 31.4% 22.9% 2.9%

Eating healthy is more expensive thaneating unhealthy.

StronglyDisagree

DisagreeNeither

Disagree

or Agree

AgreeStronglyAgree

11.4% 10.0% 11.4% 47.1% 20.0%


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Eating healthy or making more nutritioushealth choices requires me to give up my

favorite foods for unappealing or weirdfood.

StronglyDisagree

DisagreeNeither

Disagreeor Agree

AgreeStronglyAgree

22.9% 47.1% 15.7% 12.9% 1.4%

Carbohydrates are bad. They are one of thelargest reasons obesity is such an epidemic

here in the United States.

StronglyDisagree

DisagreeNeither

Disagreeor Agree

AgreeStronglyAgree

11.4% 41.4% 21.4% 21.4% 4.3%


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Supplements and enriched/fortified foods*are just as good as foods that contain

vitamins and minerals naturally. As long as Iam getting them from somewhere.

(*Enriched/fortified food- Foods that have

nutrients added back in after the refiningprocess.

Supplements- Vitamin or mineral tablets.)

StronglyDisagree

DisagreeNeither

Disagreeor Agree

AgreeStronglyAgree

21.4% 48.6% 18.6% 10.0% 1.4%


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I trust what manufactures put on foodpackaging and labels because the USDA(United States Department of Agriculture)

regulates that information.

StronglyDisagree Disagree

Neither

Disagreeor Agree

Agree StronglyAgree

27.1% 28.6% 15.7% 25.7% 2.9%


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Breakfast Option A

BreakfastOption B


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When looking for information about nutritionand health the FIRST place I typically go is

The internet- government sites or researchconducted through Universities and peer

reviewed journals etc.

30%

The internet- WedMD,Wikipdedia or Wikihow, blogs

etc.

41.4%

My Physician or otherHealth Professional(Nurse, Registered

Dietitian)

15.7

My trainer at the

gym0%

Friends orfamily

10%

Other2.9%

All of theabove

depending

Read the

labels on theproducts

Natural Food

Store


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I attempt to get in at least 2 hours of moderate(brisk walking of about 100 steps per minute)exercise a week.


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ConclusionOverall this survey showed that those who tool it had a decent grasp on certainpitfalls and misconceptions around Nutrition.

Most people generally disagreedwith statements about diet not having a

significant impact on disease prevention, that eating healthy meant givingup favorite foods for less appealing foods, and that whole foods withoriginal nutrients are better than fortified food or supplements.

It was interesting to find:

52% disagreed with the statement Carbohydrates are bad. They are one ofthe largest reasons obesity is such an epidemic here in the United States.But

the other half was almost evenly split between (21.4%) not knowing andagreeing (25.7%). This was surprising to me. I think that I may havereceived different results (more agreement) had I simply put the statementCarbs are bad and not linked them to obesity specifically.

Over half of those surveyed (67.1%) agreed that eating healthy is more

expensive than eating unhealthy.

57.1% were eitherunsure or agreed that they would purchase a foodproduct that has been found to be beneficial based off a single study over acomparable product without the study. This fell in line with what Iexpected and something actually I have done myself.

55.7%disagreed stating that they trust what manufacturers put on

packaging and labels and the USDAs regulations of this. I was slightly

surprised at how strongly people disagreed because before going through aNutrition Course I was more trusting of food labels.

Nutrient Density:

57 % of those survey recognized that Breakfast option A and B had the

SAME amount of calories the rest (34.%)selected Breakfast A as higher

is calories. When choosing to do this question I was sure that more

people were going to pick Breakfast A as having more calories. I wassurprised that most people recognized that they had the same.


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ConclusionI believe just by providing option 3 of Same amount of calories mayhave partly given the answer.

Sources for Health and Nutrition information:

A surprisingly low amount of people stated that they got their Nutrition

or Health information from Health Professionals (15.7%). I was expecting

higher since I stated HEALTH and Nutrition information.

This survey showed the preferred method of finding Health and Nutritioninformation is through internet based resources (71%).

o With 41.4% preferring websites like WebMD, Blogs and Wikipedia

government, university and peer-reviewed journals. I found this

concerning, especially if almost a third of the respondents were mostlikely in the health care field.

0% of people get their health information from the gym trainer.

Physical Activity:

87.1% stated that they were had some chance of getting the

recommended physical activity per week.

46% stated that they were somewhat likely to get the recommended

level of physical activity per week.

Limitations:

I was limited on the amount of demographic questions I was able to ask.There is a 10 question limit in Survey Monkeys free version and I focusedon the statements on certain nutrition assumptions. However, it is a goodsample size (n=70) and most of the people surveyed consisted of adults

between 18 and 40 years of age. I also blasted the survey out through emailto family, friends, coworkers, on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. OnTwitter I focused on nursing group accounts and I did that 2 days afterFacebook, LinkedIn and emailing the survey out. I received a good 20


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ConclusionFrom Twitter there is a very good possibility that of those 20 people many werenurses. I do not believe that that skewed the results because I used Facebook

first and got about 50 responses and the overall percentages did not change.

All in all this was a very basic survey that had many limitations that kept it farfrom being scientifically sound but it definitely gave me a good view of whatmy friends, coworkers and family think when it comes to nutrition assumptionsand where they get their information.

what nutrition means to you!_white paper_alia holyfield

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