This paper presents a conceptual and methodological model to study dietary habits in the community. This effort is in response to the need to develop multi‐dimensional concepts of dietary behavior in free‐living populations and innovative methods appropriate for their study. A theoretical construct, dietary habit, is presented. After describing current methods used in both social and nutrition research, a model is suggested for integrating them in epidemiological research design to study dietary habit. This model is adapted from the sociological technique of triangulation.