Dietary habits and barriers to healthier eating in Asian American adults, considering ethnic subgroups and immigrant generations.

There is a lack of understanding of the determinants of dietary habits in Asian American populations. We examined dietary habits and barriers to adopting healthier habits in Asian Americans, considering potential differences by ethnic subgroup and immigrant generation. We conducted an online survey of 1041 Asian Americans aged 21 years and older, inquiring about socio-demographic characteristics, dietary intake, and barriers to healthier eating. Most participants (64.5%) often consumed foods from their culture of origin. Fewer than half of the participants consumed vegetables (47.4%), fruit (39.4%), or whole grains (34.7%) at least once a day. As immigrant generations increased, consumption of foods from their culture of origin decreased (P = 0.002), whereas consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (P = 0.02) and the prevalence of obesity (P = 0.01) increased. The most common barriers to consuming a healthy diet among the study population were the high price of healthy foods (39.3% often/always), friends preferring the taste of other foods (37.6%), and reluctance to give up foods they liked (34.7%). Although the top barriers were similar across immigrant generations and countries of origin, some significant differences were observed by ethnic subgroup. Our findings suggest that a majority of Asian Americans frequently consume foods from their culture of origin and do not meet dietary recommendations. Important barriers to eating healthier foods include the price and a preference for other foods. These findings can inform the development of policies and interventions to improve the dietary intake of Asian American populations.