Diet composition and food acquisition in people (Homo homo sapiens): a survey analysis.

Abstract

In a survey study involving three human communities in northern Michigan, I investigated the effect of distance from nearest grocery store on diet composition and food acquisition. Specifically, I recorded all food items eaten over two days, number of visits to restaurants made over two days, and whether or not gardening and (separately) hunting and/or fishing contributed ""substantial"" amounts to the diets of fifteen randomly chosen households in each community, and I conducted one-way ANOVAs on these dependent variables with respect to distance from nearest grocery. Results show that differences between the three communities regarding the number of unique food items consumed by households over two-days were insignificant, but that frequency of restaurant visitation tended to decrease, and reported contribution of gardening and hunting and/or fishing to diet tended to increase with distance from nearest grocery. These results lend some support to the notion that human behavior depends on environmental conditions, but that human response to environmental conditions is very flexible.