Food consumption and health: Eating habits of a Spanish extra-domestic diner

Abstract

Eating out is a food behavior that has increased in modern societies and has been modified in the modernization process. The specialized literature associates the extra-domestic food consumption with a specific social profile, linking this practice with income, educational level, and occupation. This work continues along this line to corroborate the profile of the Spanish extra-domestic diner, contributing as a novelty, on the one hand, an increase in the number of variables and, on the other, a change in the theme of these variables. This is possible thanks to the incorporation of questions related to eating outside the home in the Barometers of the Sociological Research Center (CIS, 2017). To the “traditional” sociodemographic variables are added seven variables related to the different habits of daily life and their impact on people’s health: time to get up and go to bed, number of meals on weekdays, consumption of different foods, the frequency of meals away from home, physical activity, and self-assessment of your health. The results of this research show that the profile of the diner outside the home has a different diet than the domestic diner, sleeps fewer hours, and does less sport than the average of the Spanish population. Despite these differences, the educational level continues to be the main variable to explain this eating habit.