OBJECTIVES : Meals prepared away from the home may be associated with high food expenditures and poor diet. We examined the relationships among the frequency of consumption of meals prepared away from the home, allocation of household food expenditures, and diet measures in a nationally representative sample.

METHODS : This study used data from the 2011-2014 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. We measured frequency of meals prepared away from the home and estimated measures of diet (i.e., mean kCals/day; grams/day of protein, carbohydrates, fat, saturated fat, sugar, sodium, fiber) using a 24-hour dietary recall. We measured the proportions of monthly household income and the proportions of total household food expenditures allocated to food prepared away from the home versus purchased at the grocery store. Analyses were conducted in 2017, using OLS regression adjusted for sociodemographic covariates.

RESULTS : Greater frequency of consuming food prepared away from the home was associated with worse measures of diet and higher total food expenditures. Total food expenditures were largely unrelated to measures of diet, but higher proportion of food expenditures spent on groceries was associated with fewer calories, fat, saturated fat, sodium and increased fiber (B=-207.09 kCals, -12.95 g/d fat, -4.53 g/d saturated fat, -360.16 g/d sodium, 1.77 g/d fiber) Greater proportion of food expenditures spent on dining out/carry out was associated with higher calories, fat, saturated fat, sodium and less fiber diet (B=216.96 kCals, 11.59 g/d fat, 4.08 g/d saturated fat, 391.09 g/d sodium, -3.21 g/d fiber).

CONCLUSIONS : Increased frequency of consuming meals prepared away from the home was associated with worse diet measures and higher food expenditures. Results suggest that strategies to reduce meals consumed away from the home might improve diet while saving Americans money.