(P19-031-24) Perceptions and Knowledge About Climate Friendly Food Choices and Associations With Dietary Intake and Policy Support in a Large National Sample of US Adults

Objectives: To understand American’s food-related climate mitigation perceptions, and associations with dietary quality and red meat intake.

Methods: We conducted a national, web-based survey using CloudResearch in November 2023 (N=4,495 adults aged 18 years). Participants rated their agreement (on a 7-point Likert scale) that they try to make food choices that are “good for the environment,” “reduce my impact on climate change”, and “are good for my health”. Participants rated on a 5-point Likert scale from ‘not at all’ (1) to ‘extremely’ (5) on how effective eating less meat and 9 other actions were for reducing climate change. Dietary intake, including red meat intake, over the last 30 days was measured using the validated Prime Diet Quality Screener. We used cross tabulations to test differences in perceptions and knowledge by age group. We assessed associations between climate perceptions and dietary quality and red meat intake using adjusted generalized linear models.

Results: Overall, 19% of adults reported trying to make food choices that are good for the environment, 16% made food choices to reduce the impact on climate change, and 47% made food choices that are good for their health. Compared to adults >70 years, adults aged 18-29 were more likely to try to make food choices that are good for the environment (26% vs. 15%), and that reduce climate change (23% vs. 12%). In contrast, more older adults tried to make food choices good for their health (43% vs. 53%; all p’s < 0.001). Eating less red meat (mean score: 2.3) and eating fewer dairy products (2.1) were ranked as less effective at reducing climate change than all other actions including recycling (3.6), wasting less food (3.3), and eating local foods (2.8). Greater agreement with trying to make food choices to reduce climate change was associated with 2.4% lower frequency of red meat intake (p=0.011).

Conclusions: Health is a greater motivator for food choices than climate change/environment among US adults, though there are differences by age. Educating consumers of all ages about the climate impact of food choices, particularly reducing red meat intake, could improve health for people and the planet.

Funding Sources: This research was supported by the NIDDK of the NIH (Award# K01DK119166). ACT was supported by Grant Number T32 HL007024 from the NHLBI, NIH.