Healthier Eating Orders Decrease By End of the Week

Fifty-two percent of deliveries made on Monday are considered healthy

SPONSOREDUpdated 9:09AM • 03/24/16

Monday is a time when people make better eating decisions after a gluttonous weekend. But a recent study found that consumers eating habits tend to get unhealthier as the week goes. According to digital order and delivery service Caviar, 52 percent of deliveries made at the beginning of the workweek are healthy. As the week progresses, that figure starts to decline and by Saturday, only 40 percent of orders are healthy.

This trend might be attributed to a busy schedule and a matter of convenience. It is much easier to grab some grub from a fast food restaurant on the way home from work, as opposed to cooking at home. Catherine Ferdon, a spokeswoman for Caviar’s parent company Square, said consumers also want to cap off a long week with some comfort food.

“According to our data, customers are more likely to increase their unhealthy item orders as the week goes on,” Ferdon said. “We don't know what specifically causes this behavior, but we do have a few hypotheses. As you can imagine, people may be letting loose by the time the weekend rolls around, celebrating the end of a long work week with some more indulgent foods than they might choose earlier in the week."

Caviar cataloged 100 healthy and 100 unhealthy terms in order to categorize different menu items. Hot dogs, burritos, pizza and burgers were labeled as unhealthy, while salads and soup were considered unhealthy. Ferdon said they tried to categorize the most common food terms in order to help show clearer trends. The hope is that this data shows operators they should be promoting healthier foods during the beginning of the week and more indulgent ones towards the end.

“It gives people a better understanding of what people around them might be ordering, especially if they’re feeling that maybe they shouldn’t be ordering that extra slice of pizza. At least they know that many people are feeling the same way toward the end of the week,” Ferdon says.

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