The Healthy Eating Index-2010 is a measure of diet quality as portrayed by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans; however, computing the Healthy Eating Index score is time consuming and requires trained personnel. The Rapid Eating Assessment for Participants [shortened version] is a simple measure that quickly, in less than 10 min, assesses diet quality in a clinical or research setting. This research evaluated the degree of correlation between these two methods of scoring diet quality, as well as between these methods and other indicators of diet quality, including the nutrient density of the diet, the dietary potential renal acid load, urine pH, and plasma vitamin C concentrations. The research design was a secondary data analysis, and participants were healthy adults (n = 81) self-classified as omnivorous, vegetarian, or vegan. Confounding variables were identified and controlled using partial correlations. The two methods of scoring diet quality were significantly correlated (r = 0.227, p = 0.047). Both the Healthy Eating Index and the Rapid Eating Assessment for Participants scoring methods were correlated to nutrient density of the diets (r = 0.474 and r = 0.472 respectively, p < 0.001) as well as to the dietary potential renal acid load and urinary pH (r ranging from 0.304–0.341, p ≤ 0.002). The Rapid Eating Assessment for Participants, but not the Healthy Eating Index, was significantly correlated to plasma vitamin C concentrations (r = 0.500, p < 0.001 and 0.192, p = 0.095 respectively). These results in combination with ease of use and low cost suggest that the Rapid Eating Assessment for Participants measure is a useful tool for assessing diet quality.

Objective: To examine the effects of the inclusion of extruded dry beans in the diet on serum lipoprotein, plasma ®brinogen, plasma viscosity and plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 (PAI-1) levels. Subjects and study design: Twenty-two free living hyperlipidaemic men participated in this randomised, controlled, cross-over study. The subjects were randomly assigned to one of two groups. After a run-in period of four weeks, during which subjects followed their normal diet with the exclusion of dry beans, group A had to include 110 gaday of extruded dry beans in the form of baked products for four weeks while group B continued with the run-in diet. A washout period of four weeks followed after which the experimental intervention was crossed-over. Anthropometric measurements, serum lipoproteins and haemostatic variables were measured with standard methods and dietary intakes were estimated with ®ve-day dietary records at the beginning and end of each experimental period. Results: Compliance was determined as 83.5% with a mean intake of 91.9 gaday extruded dry beans. Extruded dry beans did not have signi®cant effects on total serum cholesterol, low density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides, apolipoprotein A or B, plasma ®brinogen and plasma viscosity concentrations. High density lipoprotein cholesterol concentrations decreased in both the dry bean and control periods. Lipoprotein (a) concentrations increased with intake of extruded dry beans, but this increase was probably not due to an independent effect of extruded dry beans. Plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 levels were signi®cantly lower after the intake of extruded dry beans compared to the control period. Conclusions: The inclusion of 91.9 g extruded dry beans per day in the diet had no effects on serum lipoproteins, plasma ®brinogen and viscosity levels but decreased PAI-1 levels. Descriptors: extrusion; dry beans; lipoproteins; ®brinogen; viscosity; plasminogen activator inhibitor 1; PAI-1 Sponsorship: Dry Bean Producers Organisation (South Africa) and the Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, Potchefstroom, South Africa.