What food and weight reveal about daily health
Core finding
Food and weight questions show a practical daily-health story rather than a single diet or body-weight readout.
Adults place themselves around the middle and positive end of healthy eating, while food noise, weight goals, GLP-1 use, food insecurity, and tracking tools add context.
Healthy eating ratings cluster in the middle
Healthy eating ratings clustered around the middle and positive end of the scale, with 45.0% choosing the midpoint and 30.3% choosing the next-highest rating.
Support from others also appears in the food-change context, with 50.7% agreeing or strongly agreeing that support plays an important role.
Stacked breakdown
45.0% rate their healthy eating at the midpoint of the scale.
n = 1,000 · May 1–4, 2026 · MoE ±3.2%
Food noise and weight goals broaden the picture
A 50.9% share reported experiencing food noise at least sometimes.
Weight goals and beliefs about genetic influence add a broader body-weight context, while 82.8% said they had not taken a GLP-1 medication in the past 12 months.
Stacked breakdown
50.9% experience food noise at least sometimes.
n = 1,000 · May 1–4, 2026 · MoE ±3.2%
Tools and food pressure add context
Food insecurity, embarrassment about food, interest in a mobile app for food choices, and image-based tracking preferences all add context around daily food decisions.
Stacked breakdown
31.7% say image-based food tracking is not acceptable at all.
n = 1,000 · May 1–4, 2026 · MoE ±3.3%
Methodology
Full methodology →| Mode | Verasight panel recruited via random address-based sampling, random person-to-person text messaging, and dynamic online targeting |
|---|---|
| Population | US adults age 18+ |
| Field dates | May 1–4, 2026 |
| Base (unweighted) | 1,000 |
| Margin of error | ±3.2% |
| Module | 1 |
| Sponsor | Verasight |
| Weight variable | weight |
| Weighting targets | age, race/ethnicity, sex, income, education, region, metropolitan status |
Sources
- reports.verasight.io/r/sbm-2026
How would you rate your healthy eating behaviors on a scale of 1 - 5, with 1 being poor and 5 being great?
- reports.verasight.io/r/sbm-2026
“Food Noise” is a term popularized in media and social media to describe things like “constantly thinking about food, even when not hungry,” or feeling like one’s life “revolves around food.” How often do you experience “Food Noise”?
- reports.verasight.io/r/sbm-2026
At any time in the past 12 months, have you intentionally tried to
- reports.verasight.io/r/sbm-2026
Thinking about all of the things that influence a person's body weight - to what extent does a person's genetic makeup influence their weight?
- reports.verasight.io/r/sbm-2026
Have you been taking a GLP-1 medication (e.g., Ozempic, Mounjaro, Wegovy)?
- reports.verasight.io/r/sbm-2026
Have you ever worried that your food would run out, or did the food you bought just not last and you didn't have money money to get more?
- reports.verasight.io/r/sbm-2026
To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statement: "In the last 12 months, (I/we) felt embarrassed by the food (I/we) eat."
- reports.verasight.io/r/sbm-2026
On a scale from 1 to 5, how interested would you be in using a mobile health app to improve your food choices?
- reports.verasight.io/r/sbm-2026
How many times per day would it be acceptable to track your food and drink through images?
Cite this topic
SBM Omnibus Survey #2026-049, fielded May 1-4, 2026, N=1,000 US adults age 18+, +/- 3.2%.