Culture and meal patterns: A comparison of the food intake of free-living American, Dutch, and French students

In order to establish the generalizability or cultural specificity of the factors that influence the ad libitum eating patterns of free-living humans, the eating behaviors of 26 French, 140 American, and 50 Dutch university students were measured with a diet diary technique. Marked cultural differences were present in the amounts, composition, diurnal rhythm, and pattern of intake. In comparison to the French and the Americans, the Dutch ate considerably more overall and ingested a large number of small meals separated by relatively short intervals. They ate with more other people present, for a longer duration at a slower rate, with larger deprivation ratios and smaller satiety ratios, and had more food remaining in their stomachs at the beginning of the meal. Even with these differences the univariate or multivariate correlations between meal size or the aftermeal interval with the time of day, the number of people present, the subjective state of hunger, the stomach contents, and the premeal interval were quite similar between nationalities. These relationships varied in magnitude especially when hunger self-ratings, the time of day, or the aftermeal interval were involved, but, the directions of the relationships were in all cases the same. These results suggest that, although cultural effects permeate the eating pattern, many of the social, psychological and physical variables that influence intake are similar across cultures. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Inc.