When college students reject food: not just a matter of taste

Motives underlying the self-reported active avoidance of particular foods were examined. A total of 113 college men (N=56) and women (N=57) reported one food that they actively reject and then completed the Food Avoidance Inventory while keeping that food in mind. The Food Avoidance Inventory measures the degree to which specific sociocultural reasons such as weight health, food's unnatural content, and animal ethics reasons may influence decisions to reject a certain food. Meat was reported as the most frequently rejected food among these college students (N=41), followed by vegetables (N=26) and weight concerns were endorsed as the most prevalent reasons for actively avoiding a certain food. Both the food type rejected and the reasons for rejection were significantly mediated by respondents' gender. These data confirm that male and female college students avoid different foods and have different reasons for doing so.