| Conventionally, fruits and vegetables have been the major source of micronutrients. However, with the rising availability of nutritional supplements, U.S. consumers no longer need to rely on food alone for their nutritional needs. Time-pressured consumers with limited cooking skills and nutrition knowledge may find it easier to take vitamin supplements. The objective of this paper is to determine the impact of lifestyle, diet behavior including vitamin supplement consumption, and food culture on diet quality outcomes as measured by the Healthy Eating Index-2005 (HEI) and total energy intake. We use the 2003-04 U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) to examine the relationship between HEI and caloric intake. Further, our specific... |
