DIETARY SUPPLEMENTATION, NATURALISTIC VALUES AND ATTITUDES TO THE FOOD-SUPPLY AMONG AUSTRALIAN WOMEN

A survey instrument designed to assess naturalistic and technological values orientations, food beliefs and dietary supplementation practices was administered to a random sample of women in Adelaide, South Australia. Four hundred and eighteen women responded, a response rate of 65%. Regular users of dietary supplements had more positive opinions of natural foods (p < 0.001) than nonsupplementers. They also evaluated naturalistic aspects of modern life more positively than nonsupplementers. In addition, several relationships were observed between their values orientations and food beliefs. The results are discussed in relation to two postulated causal pathways, a stress-symptom, and a natural-foods one, of dietary supplementation practices. The study showed views of the food supply to be related to anomy, naturalistic and technological aspects of the modern world.