Online shoppers have unhealthy eating habits

LivingSocial's "Dining Out" survey polls people who shop online and finds out how and where they eat

Online shoppers are pretty unhealthy eaters, according to survey data released by LivingSocial.  The LivingSocial “Dining Out” survey was conducted by Mandala Research in the top 20 media markets in the U.S. and polled 4000 adults who had either made an online purchase in the last six months or were “very likely” to make an online purchase within the next six months.

I don’t purport to know what online shopping has to do with dining out, but that was the premise of the survey; I’m just the messenger.

So, how unhealthy are online shoppers?   A full 19% of respondents described themselves as “fast food junkies.”  Nearly half (45%) described themselves as “meat lovers” and 22% said they have a “sweet tooth.”  By comparison, a mere 18% described themselves as “health nuts,” and only 5% said they were vegetarians or vegans.  

Interestingly, though I guess not paradoxically, 25% of respondents considered themselves “foodies” and 35% described themselves as “experimental eaters.” 

Maybe it was just my own skewed logic, but I always made a mental connection between foodies and healthy eaters.  I’m not sure why…maybe I was wrong to assume that people who like food actually like high-quality food.  But then if you’ve ever watched Paula Deen slop a can of sludgy cream of mushroom soup on a pot roast while saying “du’nt that look goo-ood,” you would have grounds to counter my assumption.

I was also surprised to see how often the average person dines out, since I’m both stingy and terrified of hidden calories, so I tend to only eat out once a week at most.  Among those polled, the average number of meals eaten out per week was 4.8, or 249 meals per year.  Lunch was the most common meal for eating out, with respondents saying they dine out for lunch (or get carry out) 2.6 times a week.

San Francisco tops the list of healthiest eaters, with 25% of San Francisco-based respondents describing themselves as “health nuts.”  San Francisco is also the top city for diverse eating, with residents regularly eating sushi, Thai, Indian, French, Vietnamese, Tapas, and Korean foods more than any other city.

Just a few hundred miles away, Los Angeles took the top spot for the highest concentration of fast food junkies. 

In the best and worst categories, New York City (to no one’s shock) took the top spot as the best dining scene in the country, followed by Chicago and San Francisco.  And the worst: Detroit, followed by Sacramento and Seattle. 

Image source: webmd.com