Credit: Photo courtesy Flickr user jeffreyw
You are what you eat, unless you're not quite sure what you ate.
A new paper by Jinan Banna and Marie Kainoa Fialkowski of the University of Hawai'i at Manoa's College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources and Marilyn Townsend of the University of California, Davis' College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences takes a critical look at how faulty self-reporting of the food we eat can lead to incorrect conclusions about whether we are meeting dietary recommendations for certain essential nutrients.
Banna's study is the first to examine how accounting for the problem of misreporting affects nutrient intake estimates in the Hispanic community. Nearly one in three US residents is projected to be Hispanic in 2060.
The paper, "Misreporting of dietary intake affects estimated nutrient intakes in low-income Spanish-speaking women," was recently published in the online version of the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
Researchers interviewed a group of 82 low-income Mexican American women in California about their food intake, and then determined how accurate their reported intake was by comparing it to predicted energy requirements.
Their findings revealed that the plausibility of reporting significantly influenced whether a participant met recommendations for several essential nutrients. Estimated energy, protein, cholesterol, dietary fiber, and vitamin E intakes were significantly higher in plausible reporters—those whose self-reported intake the study authors determined to be the most realistic.
These results support the importance of evaluating plausibility of reported intake when analyzing self-reported dietary data to determine whether a population is meeting recommendations.
"Data that does not reflect actual intake may be used by researchers, policy makers and others to take actions to change eating habits, leading to recommendations that are not based on inaccurate information," Banna warned. "It is important to find ways to ensure that individuals correctly report what they ate so we have a sound basis for drawing conclusions."
One challenge that authors point out is that the traditional Mexican diet—which includes such tasty foods as atole, a corn-based gruel, chilaquiles, a dish composed of tortillas and sauces, and aguas frescas de fruta, homemade fruit-based drinks—includes many items that are not contained on the standard nutrition composition tables.
Future studies might involve examining whether this same phenomenon occurs in other Hispanic subgroups, Banna said.
"It will be important to see how we might prevent this problem of misreporting," she said. "That may mean looking at new ways of collecting information about diet in Hispanics, like asking people to take photographs of the food they eat instead of performing interviews."
Explore further: Dietary counseling has little effect after gastric bypass
More information: Misreporting of Dietary Intake Affects Estimated Nutrient Intakes in Low-Income Spanish-Speaking Women. Banna, Jinan C. et al. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. http://ift.tt/1t9Yqeg
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Credit: Photo courtesy Flickr user jeffreyw
You are what you eat, unless you're not quite sure what you ate.
A new paper by Jinan Banna and Marie Kainoa Fialkowski of the University of Hawai'i at Manoa's College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources and Marilyn Townsend of the University of California, Davis' College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences takes a critical look at how faulty self-reporting of the food we eat can lead to incorrect conclusions about whether we are meeting dietary recommendations for certain essential nutrients.
Banna's study is the first to examine how accounting for the problem of misreporting affects nutrient intake estimates in the Hispanic community. Nearly one in three US residents is projected to be Hispanic in 2060.
The paper, "Misreporting of dietary intake affects estimated nutrient intakes in low-income Spanish-speaking women," was recently published in the online version of the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
Researchers interviewed a group of 82 low-income Mexican American women in California about their food intake, and then determined how accurate their reported intake was by comparing it to predicted energy requirements.
Their findings revealed that the plausibility of reporting significantly influenced whether a participant met recommendations for several essential nutrients. Estimated energy, protein, cholesterol, dietary fiber, and vitamin E intakes were significantly higher in plausible reporters—those whose self-reported intake the study authors determined to be the most realistic.
These results support the importance of evaluating plausibility of reported intake when analyzing self-reported dietary data to determine whether a population is meeting recommendations.
"Data that does not reflect actual intake may be used by researchers, policy makers and others to take actions to change eating habits, leading to recommendations that are not based on inaccurate information," Banna warned. "It is important to find ways to ensure that individuals correctly report what they ate so we have a sound basis for drawing conclusions."
One challenge that authors point out is that the traditional Mexican diet—which includes such tasty foods as atole, a corn-based gruel, chilaquiles, a dish composed of tortillas and sauces, and aguas frescas de fruta, homemade fruit-based drinks—includes many items that are not contained on the standard nutrition composition tables.
Future studies might involve examining whether this same phenomenon occurs in other Hispanic subgroups, Banna said.
"It will be important to see how we might prevent this problem of misreporting," she said. "That may mean looking at new ways of collecting information about diet in Hispanics, like asking people to take photographs of the food they eat instead of performing interviews."
Explore further: Dietary counseling has little effect after gastric bypass
More information: Misreporting of Dietary Intake Affects Estimated Nutrient Intakes in Low-Income Spanish-Speaking Women. Banna, Jinan C. et al. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. http://ift.tt/1t9Yqeg
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(HealthDay)—Dietary and behavioral counseling can help improve nutrient intake in patients who have had gastric bypass surgery, but nutrient intake still remains inadequate in many patients, according to ...
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Oct 07, 2014
Sandwiches Account for One-Fifth of Total Sodium Intake, with Nearly Half of American Adults Consuming Them on Any Given Day, According to New Study Published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics
Reporting of dietary intake methods in obesity trials poor
Aug 23, 2012
(HealthDay)—More care needs to be taken in reporting dietary intake methods in childhood and adolescent obesity intervention trials in order to be able to better evaluate and replicate study methods, according ...
Assessing the US population's sodium intake
Dec 06, 2013
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists used an automated dietary survey tool they developed to accurately estimate how much sodium volunteers consumed as part of their daily diets.
New data suggest potassium, dietary fiber intake among toddlers should be priority
Apr 29, 2014
Recommendations to increase the intake of potassium and dietary fiber among young children should be a priority for the 2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, according to a new study by the Alliance for Potato Research and ...
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