Canadians' eating habits: Defintions

Respondents to the 2004 Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) — Nutrition were asked where the food they ate had been prepared: home, which includes someone else’s home; fast food, which includes take-outs and pizzerias; and other locations. Other locations cover: restaurants with waiter/waitress; other restaurants; bars, taverns, lounges; school and non-school cafeterias; work; child care centres; family/adult care centres; vending machines; grocery stores; corner stores; other stores; and other locations. The categories used in this analysis are: home only, at least some fast food (fast food only; fast food and home; fast food and other; fast food, home and other); and other combinations. Some respondents may have provided information about the location where they consumed the food rather than where it had been prepared. If a respondent reported having eaten in a fast-food establishment, he or she was considered to have eaten food prepared in a fast-food restaurant on the interview day.

For each food that they had eaten, respondents specified the occasion: breakfast, lunch, dinner and between-meal consumption. Breakfast includes brunch. Between-meal consumption covers anything that was not reported as breakfast, lunch or dinner. It includes snacks, drinks consumed outside of a meal, extended consumption (eating or drinking something throughout the day), and other unspecified occasions.

Age groups were defined according to the dietary reference intake groups used by the Institute of Medicine (IOM): 4 to 8, 9 to 13, 14 to 18, 19 to 30, 31 to 50, 51 to 70, and 71 or older. In Chart 4, data on milk products are presented for the 4 to 9, 10 to 16, and 17 or older age groups, which are used in Canada’s Food Guide to Healthy Eating for People Four Years Old and Over.⁵ In Table 1 and Table 3, the age groups presented are those that were used for the analysis of data from the 1970-1972 Nutrition Canada Survey.

Household income was calculated based on the number of people in the household and total income from all sources in the 12 months before the CCHS interview:

Household income group	People in household	Total household income

Lowest	1 to 4 5 or more	Less than $10,000 Less than $15,000
Lower-middle	1 or 2 3 or 4 5 or more	$10,000 to $14,999 $10,000 to $19,999 $15,000 to $29,999
Middle	1 or 2 3 or 4 5 or more	$15,000 to $29,999 $20,000 to $39,999 $30,000 to $59,999
Upper-middle	1 or 2 3 or 4 5 or more	$30,000 to $59,999 $40,000 to $79,999 $60,000 to $79,999
Highest	1 or 2 3 or more	$60,000 or more $80,000 or more

For ease of reference, the term “calorie” is used in the text, although the term “kilocalorie” is more accurate.

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