Technical Abstract: This study examined the association between dietary and other lifestyle practices of adults in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's latest, national Diet and Health Knowledge Survey 1994 1996 (DHKS). The objective of the study was to find out whether adults, who considered nutrition very important when buying food, ate a more nutritious diet and adopted health promoting, lifestyle practices than adults who did not consider nutrition very important. There were 5,689 adults in the study. They were placed in one of the two groups: those who considered nutrition very important and those who did not consider nutrition very important. Regression models controlling for socio economic variables were used to assess dietary intakes, overall diet quality, and four lifestyle practices of the respondents. A high percent of females, adults ages 55 years and over, African Americans, and Hispanics stated that nutrition was very important to them when buying food. Adults who considered nutrition very important had lower energy, total fat, saturated fat, and added sugars; and ate more nutritious foods such as fruits, non-starchy vegetables, and fluid milk than their counterparts. Adults who did not consider nutrition very important as compared to adults who considered nutrition very important, were only half as likely to eat a good quality diet and 27 percent more likely to eat a poor quality diet, 26 percent more likely to eat fast food, 21 percent more likely to watch television for more than two hours a day, 38 percent more likely to be a smoker, and 32 percent less likely to exercise at least twice a week. The study showed that adults who placed importance on nutrition were also more likely to practice a health-promoting lifestyle.