Association of eating motives with anthropometry, body composition, and dietary intake in healthy German adults

Effective policies to address poor food choices and dietary patterns need to consider the complex set of motives affecting eating behavior. This study examined how different eating motives are associated with anthropometry, body composition, and dietary intake. Our analysis is based on a cross-sectional sample with 429 healthy adults in three different age groups collected in Germany from 2016 to 2018. Dietary intake, Body Mass Index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), and fat-free mass (FFM) were measured by standardized methods. Eating motives were measured using The Eating Motivation Scale (TEMS). Regressing dietary intakes and anthropometric indicators on TEMS motives, we identify the main sources of variation in diet and nutritional status separately for men and women. Results indicated the Health motive to be positively associated with FFM (B±SE=1.72±0.44) and negatively with WC (B±SE=-3.23±0.81) for men. For women, the Need & Hunger motive was positively associated with FFM (B±SE=1.63±0.44) and negatively with WC (B±SE=-2.46±0.81). While Liking and Habits were the most frequently stated eating motives, we did not find them to be significantly related to the nutritional status. Other motives were associated with dietary intake but not anthropometry or body composition. The Price motive was positively and the Convenience motive was negatively associated with energy (B±SE=63.77±19.98;B±SE=-46.96±17.12) and carbohydrate intake (B±SE=7.15±2.65;B±SE=-5.98±2.27) for men. The results highlight the need for more differentiated analyses of eating motives, beyond comparing the relative importance of motives based on mean values, towards the association of motives with dietary intake and nutritional status.