SEOUL KOREA - A study said one out of every three Korean adults eats out in a day. A research team led by Prof. Joo Se-young, Department of Food and Nutrition at Dankook University, said this based on primary data on eating habits of 55,718 adults over 19 years of age extracted from the National Health and Nutrition Survey between 1998 and 2012. According to the study, the ratio of those who have dinner outside has increased to 32 percent in 2012 from 20 percent in 1998. The share of those who have breakfast outside has also risen to 13.7 percent from 7.3 percent during the same period.
The average number of eat-out per day was 0.9 for all age groups. Those in their 20s had the highest number of eat-out at 1.2 times, followed by those in their 30s and 40s at 1.1. Comparing to the age group in their 70s, those in their 20s tend to eat out four times more (1.2 vs. 0.3).
Prof. Joo said that people's eating habits have become more unhealthy as they eat more outside their homes. For example, the average daily intake of calories has increased to 1,063 kilocalories in 2012 from 948 kilocalories in 1998. As for fat intake, it rose to 27.2 grams from 21.6 grams during the same period. Their sodium intake has also increased 24 percent to 2,935 milligrams from 2,371 milligrams in 14 years' time.
Source: The Korea Economic Daily
