Abstract Nursing homes, school lunch programs, institutional cafeterias, and households often struggle with balancing the cost of adding more variety with what consumers need to be satisfied. But we were unaware of any studies examining what people consider satisfactory variety within and across meals, days, weeks, and months. Our objectives were first to determine the variety of foods consumed by free-living, food-secure individuals 25 years of age or older with Bachelor’s degrees and no food allergies or sensitivities, and second, to evaluate how the amount of variety consumed in their diets affected their satisfaction with variety. Participants (n = 102, 50% male) maintained a 28-day online food diary with seven eating occasions: breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, early evening snack, dinner, and late evening snack. After completing each week, participants rated their satisfaction with the variety in their diets that week. We measured dietary variety both as a count of unique foods, and as a proportion of unique foods. We evaluated how dietary variety differed by gender and by eating occasions. The total number of foods consumed each week, the count of unique foods, and the proportion of unique foods were compared with ratings of satisfaction with variety. Participants consumed an average of 110 unique foods over 28 days with higher counts of unique foods for dinner (46 items), followed by lunch (38 items), and then breakfast (21 items). The highest proportions of unique foods were consumed at dinner (0.60) and early evening snack (0.59). Females consumed higher counts of unique foods than did males over most eating occasions. None of our dietary variety measures predicted participants’ satisfaction with variety. Our food-secure, highly educated, and free-living participants provided themselves with the amount of variety they needed to feel generally satisfied.

中文翻译：

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自由生活、食物安全的成年人的饮食多样化

摘要 疗养院、学校午餐计划、机构自助餐厅和家庭经常在增加品种的成本与消费者需要满足的需求之间取得平衡。但是我们不知道有任何研究调查了人们认为在膳食、数天、数周和数月之间和膳食之间令人满意的多样性。我们的目标首先是确定 25 岁或以上、拥有学士学位且没有食物过敏或敏感性的自由生活、食物安全的个人食用的食物种类，其次，评估他们饮食中食用的食物种类的数量影响了他们对多样性的满意度。参与者（n = 102，50% 男性）维护了一份为期 28 天的在线饮食日记，包括七个饮食场合：早餐、早点、午餐、下午点心、傍晚点心、晚餐和深夜点心。每周完成后，参与者评估他们对那一周饮食多样性的满意度。我们以独特食物的数量和独特食物的比例来衡量饮食多样性。我们评估了饮食多样性如何因性别和饮食场合而异。每周消耗的食物总数、独特食物的数量和独特食物的比例与对多样性的满意度进行比较。参与者在 28 天内平均食用了 110 种独特的食物，晚餐（46 项）、午餐（38 项）和早餐（21 项）的独特食物数量较多。晚餐 (0.60) 和傍晚小吃 (0.59) 时消耗的独特食物比例最高。在大多数饮食场合，女性比男性消耗更多数量的独特食物。我们的饮食多样性措施都没有预测参与者对多样性的满意度。我们的食品安全、受过高等教育和自由生活的参与者为自己提供了他们普遍感到满意所需的多样性。