The Survey of Sugar Intake among Children in Scotland was carried out in May to September 2006. The present study aimed to identify dietary patterns in school-aged children from the survey and investigate associations with socio-economic factors, obesity and physical activity. Habitual diet was assessed using the Scottish Collaborative Group FFQ. Height and weight were measured by trained fieldworkers. A total of 1233 FFQ were available for analysis. Dietary patterns were identified by age (5 -11 and 12-17 years) and sex using principal components analysis. Associations between factor scores and socio-economic status, education level of the main food provider, physical activity levels and BMI category (based on UK 1990 charts) were examined. Three dietary patterns were identified in each age and sex group. 'Healthier' patterns loading highly for fruit and vegetables were significantly associated with higher socio-economic status and higher education levels of the main food provider whereas more 'unhealthy' patterns ('snacks' and 'puddings') were associated with lower socio-economic status and lower education levels of the main food provider. There was no consistent association between dietary patterns and BMI group or time spent in physical activity. However, inactivity (screen time) was inversely associated with 'healthier' patterns in all age and sex groups and positively associated with 'puddings' and 'snacks' in girls aged 5 -11 years. Clear dietary patterns can be identified in school-age children in Scotland, which are consistently related to socio-economic factors and inactivity. This has implications for targeting health promotion at subgroups in terms of lifestyle changes required.Dietary patterns: Principal components analysis: Children: Inactivity: Overweight Traditionally research on diet and health has focused on intakes of individual nutrients and/or foods or food groups. However, diet is complex and intake of individual nutrients or foods is not independent of intakes of other nutrients or foods. More recently a number of statistical methods have been used to identify patterns of dietary behaviour. The most popular of these is principal components analysis (PCA) (1) , a data-driven method which identifies foods that are frequently eaten together by aggregating items based on the degree to which the amounts consumed are correlated with one another. The aim of PCA is to identify groups of food that account for the largest amount of variation in overall diet between individuals. This method has been mainly used in studies of diet in adult populations but has also been used previously to explore dietary patterns in British, Spanish, Australian, Korean and Finnish children (2 -11) .In 2005, the Food Standards Agency Scotland commissioned the 'Survey of Sugar Intake among Children in Scotland' (12) to provide information on the diet of children in Scotland, with a particular focus on the intake of non-milk extrinsic sugars and sugar-containing foods. The aims of the present study were to identify diet...

BackgroundExisting diet quality indices often show theoretical and methodological limitations, especially with regard to validation.ObjectiveTo develop a diet quality index based on the probability of adequate nutrient intake (PANDiet) and evaluate its validity using data from French and US populations.Material and MethodsThe PANDiet is composed of adequacy probabilities for 24 nutrients grouped into two sub-scores. The relationship between the PANDiet score and energy intake were investigated. We evaluated the construct validity of the index by comparing scores for population sub-groups with ‘a priori’ differences in diet quality, according to smoking status, energy density, food intakes, plasma folate and carotenoid concentrations. French and US implementations of the PANDiet were developed and evaluated using national nutritional recommendations and dietary surveys.ResultsThe PANDiet was not correlated with energy for the French implementation (r = −0.02, P>0.05) and correlated at a low level for the US implementation (r = −0.11, P<0.0001). In both implementations, a higher PANDiet score (i.e. a better diet quality) was associated with not smoking, having a lower-energy-dense diet, consuming higher amounts of fruits, vegetables, fish, milk and other dairy products and lower amounts of cheese, pizza, eggs, meat and processed meat, and having higher plasma folate and carotenoid concentrations after controlling for appropriate factors (all P<0.05, carotenoid data for US not available).ConclusionsThe PANDiet provides a single score that measures the adequacy of nutrient intake and reflects diet quality. This index is adaptable for use in different countries and relevant at the individual and population levels.

Objectives: Low-income households in the UK concentrate factors associated with poor record-keeping such as lower literacy, numeracy and English language skills. The present study aimed to (1) compare the validity and acceptability of three dietary survey methods against appropriate reference measures and (2) identify a method which was both valid and acceptable in low-income households. Design: Cross-sectional design comparing three 4-day dietary survey methods (multiple-pass 24-hour recall, food checklist and semi-weighed method) against a 4-day weighed inventory and other reference measures within subjects. Setting: London, UK, 2001. Subjects: Low-income households were selected using a doorstep screening questionnaire in 18 of the 60 most deprived neighbourhoods in London. Results are based on 384 respondents (159 males, 225 females) aged 2-90 years in 240 households. Respondents were mainly White (48%), Black or Black British (31%) or Asian or Asian British (9%). Results: The dietary survey method preferred by interviewers was the 24-hour recall. Most respondents preferred the food checklist. Compared with the weighed inventory, repeat 24-hour recalls and the food checklist yielded higher estimates of energy and nutrient intakes. The semi-weighed method was least liked and yielded the lowest estimates of intake. Conclusions: Based partly on evidence presented here and partly on evidence to be presented in later publications, four multiple-pass 24-hour recalls were recommended as the most appropriate method for a national study of diet and nutrition in low-income households in the UK.

Objective A wide variety of methods are available to assess dietary intake, each one with different strengths and weaknesses. Researchers face multiple challenges when diet and nutrition need to be accurately assessed, in particular in the selection of the most appropriate dietary assessment method for their study. The goal of this collaborative work is to present a collection of available resources for dietary assessment implementation. Design As a follow up to the 9th International Conference on Diet and Physical Activity Methods held in 2015, developers of dietary assessment toolkits agreed to collaborate in the preparation of the present article, which provides an overview of each toolkit. The toolkits presented include: The Diet, Anthropometry and Physical Activity Measurement Toolkit (DAPA) (UK); The National Cancer Institute’s Dietary Assessment Primer (USA); The Nutritools website (UK); the Australasian Child and Adolescent Obesity Research Network (ACAORN) method selector (Australia), and the Danone Dietary Assessment Toolkit (DanoneDAT) (France). An at-a-glance summary of features and comparison of the toolkits is provided. Setting Not applicable Subjects Not applicable Results The resulting article contains general background on dietary assessment, along with a summary of each of the included toolkits, a feature comparison table, and direct links to each toolkit, all of which are freely available online. Conclusions This overview of dietary assessment toolkits provides comprehensive information to aid users in the selection and implementation of the most appropriate dietary assessment method, or combination of methods, with the goal of collecting the highest quality dietary data possible.

BackgroundAssociations between dietary patterns, metabolic and inflammatory markers and gut microbiota are yet to be elucidated.ObjectivesWe aimed to characterize dietary patterns in overweight and obese subjects and evaluate the different dietary patterns in relation to metabolic and inflammatory variables as well as gut microbiota.DesignDietary patterns, plasma and adipose tissue markers, and gut microbiota were evaluated in a group of 45 overweight and obese subjects (6 men and 39 women). A group of 14 lean subjects were also evaluated as a reference group.ResultsThree clusters of dietary patterns were identified in overweight/obese subjects. Cluster 1 had the least healthy eating behavior (highest consumption of potatoes, confectionary and sugary drinks, and the lowest consumption of fruits that was associated also with low consumption of yogurt, and water). This dietary pattern was associated with the highest LDL cholesterol, plasma soluble CD14 (p = 0.01) a marker of systemic inflammation but the lowest accumulation of CD163+ macrophages with anti-inflammatory profile in adipose tissue (p = 0.05). Cluster 3 had the healthiest eating behavior (lower consumption of confectionary and sugary drinks, and highest consumption of fruits but also yogurts and soups). Subjects in this Cluster had the lowest inflammatory markers (sCD14) and the highest anti-inflammatory adipose tissue CD163+ macrophages. Dietary intakes, insulin sensitivity and some inflammatory markers (plasma IL6) in Cluster 3 were close to those of lean subjects. Cluster 2 was in-between clusters 1 and 3 in terms of healthfulness. The 7 gut microbiota groups measured by qPCR were similar across the clusters. However, the healthiest dietary cluster had the highest microbial gene richness, as evaluated by quantitative metagenomics.ConclusionA healthier dietary pattern was associated with lower inflammatory markers as well as greater gut microbiota richness in overweight and obese subjects.Trial RegistrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT01314690