"One Meal a Day While Watching TV Alone"... Most 2030s Have Dietary Issues

Survey of 334 People... "Overall Not Good"
'Eating Three Regular Meals a Day' Is the Most Urgent

One in two young adults in their 20s and 30s in Korea reportedly eat at least one meal alone, so-called ‘honbap,’ per day. Among their eating habits, the top priority for improvement was identified as ‘regular three meals a day.’

On the 28th, according to the Korean Society for Clinical Health Promotion, a research team led by Professors Shim Yeol Lee and Do Kyung Kim of Dongguk University published the results of a survey analysis in the society’s recent journal issue. The survey was conducted from July to August 2021 on 334 young adults aged 19 to 39.

The research team classified participants into groups based on similarity in scores for 25 lifestyle factors related to eating habits.

Reflecting significant differences in eating lifestyle characteristics, they divided the participants into five clusters: Gourmet type (high interest in food and prioritizing taste), Convenience type (seeking convenience), Health type (prioritizing health over taste), Economic type (pursuing economy without considering convenience), and Safety type (relatively indifferent to eating habits but prioritizing safety, which showed more discriminative power than other factors).

When evaluating eating habits on a 5-point scale, the scores were as follows: Economic type (3.18), Health type (3.01), Gourmet type (2.91), Convenience type (2.69), and Safety type (2.54). Among these, the eating habits of the Economic and Health types were average or better, while the other clusters showed less favorable eating habits.

The Safety type, which had the lowest score, showed the highest rate of purchasing food based on price and irregular meal patterns. This group had a higher proportion of individuals with a high school education or less and those working in the service industry. They also had relatively higher rates of no exercise and perceiving their health status as poor.

The Gourmet type had high frequencies of delivery and dining out and purchased food based on taste. The Convenience type had relatively low cooking frequency and a high rate of overeating. The Economic type had low dining out frequency but high cooking frequency, while the Health type purchased food considering price and had a higher proportion of males.

The average score for all 334 participants was 2.8, indicating generally unfavorable eating habits. Items such as ‘regular three meals a day’ (1.9), ‘daily fruit or fruit juice intake’ (2.3), and ‘daily dairy product intake’ (2.4) scored below 3. Among these, ‘regular three meals a day’ received the lowest score. Only 33.8% of the 334 participants perceived their health status as good, roughly one in three.

Additionally, 43.7% of participants ate at least one meal alone per day, and 17.1% ate two or more meals alone. When eating alone, only 8.7% focused solely on their meal, while 82.6% reported watching TV, using the internet, or playing games during meals.

The research team emphasized, “The characteristics of each cluster among young single-person households suggest potential issues such as excessive intake of total calories, fat, and sodium, and nutritional imbalance.” They stressed the need for “providing information for rational consumption and tailored policy support to improve overall eating habits.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.