DYNAMICS OF FOOD-HABITS OF NEWLY MARRIED-COUPLES - WHO MAKES CHANGES IN THE FOODS CONSUMED

One hundred and twenty subjects were asked to state the frequency with which they consumed 44 foods and drinks on three separate occasions; before marriage, after five months of marriage, and again after two and a half years of marriage. A method was devised to assess change in eating patterns, based on convergence or divergence of reported frequency of consumption of these 44 food items. Eating habits became more similar with marriage, although initial convergence tended to relax with time. Husbands were more likely to make convergent changes than wives as marriage lengthened presumably because wives made more decisions about food purchasing. There was no consistent pattern to which foods wives and husbands made convergent changes. However, wives as a group tended to consume more of their preferred foods than their husbands did; and husbands as a group tended to eat their preferred foods more frequently. Nutrition education for this relatively neglected group should be directed predominantly towards wives.