Background/objectives: Understanding food preferences is important for weight management. However, methods for assessing food preferences are not well established, especially in Japan. This study aimed to examine detailed food preferences and their associations with actual food intake in non-obese and abdominal-obese subjects using a newly developed questionnaire tailored for the Japanese population.
Methods: We developed the Japan Food Preference Questionnaire (JFPQ) to evaluate food preferences across four nutrient groups based on nutritional evidence: carbohydrate, fat, protein, and dietary fiber. A total of 38 non-obese and 30 abdominal-obese participants completed both the JFPQ and the Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ). Food preferences for each nutrient were compared between the two groups, and correlations between food preferences (assessed by the JFPQ) and food intake (assessed by the FFQ) were analyzed.
Results: Compared with the non-obese group, the abdominal-obese group showed significantly greater preferences for carbohydrates, fat, and protein, with no significant difference in dietary fiber after adjusting for age and sex. Furthermore, in the abdominal-obese group, positive correlations were found between actual intake and preference for high-fat and high-carbohydrate foods.
Conclusions: Our findings from this pilot study demonstrated that abdominal-obese individuals had greater preferences for fat and carbohydrates, which were linked to actual fat and carbohydrate intake and possibly contributed to the development of obesity.
Keywords: dietary intake; food preference; metabolic syndrome; obesity; questionnaire.