Food Away from Home Consumption and Obesity: An Analysis by Service Type and by Meal Occasion

Food away from home is recognized as one of the reasons behind recent overweight and obesity surge. The relationship between Body Mass Index and the distributional effects of food consumed at home and away from home at different levels of aggregation, along with demographic profile covariates are modeled. Demographic variables have the expected effects on BMI established by other studies. Food away from home has a significant positive effect on BMI. The effects of food away from home split into foods at Full- and Quick-service restaurants also affect BMI in the predicted way, with the latter effect being disproportionately larger. Lunch away from home has huge positive effect on BMI.