OBJECTIVES: To describe the eating patterns of members of French families and to assess the relationships between dietary intakes, eating style and overweight. DESIGN: Cross-sectional analysis of nutritional and behavioural characteristics. SUBJECTS: 1320 members of 387 families (age 11 ± 65 y) attending the Centre for Preventive Medicine for a routine medical check-up. MEASUREMENTS: Individual body weight and height were measured. Food intake was assessed using a three day dietary record. Eating style was measured using the French validated version of the Dutch Eating Behaviour Questionnaire. RESULTS: In each of the four groups (men, women, boys and girls), dietary restraint was positively correlated with overweight (P 0.001) and associated with lower energy intakes (P 0.05 ± P 0.001). A negative association between energy intake and overweight was found in girls only (P 0.001). In all cases, overweight and dietary restraint exaggerated any existing macronutrient imbalance in energy intake (ie higher protein and fat contributions, lower carbohydrate contribution). Emotional eating was positively correlated to body mass index in women only (P 0.01). External eating was mainly a characteristic of children (P 0.001). CONCLUSION: As in overweight subjects, clear relationships were found in this sample of general population between dietary intakes and eating style. The population will be followed up for 10 y. In the long term, these results should have implications in the prevention of obesity.

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Obesity is a multifactorial disease that occurs because of an imbalance between food intake and energy expenditure. Several molecular mechanisms acting on either neurological centres controlling eating behaviour or peripheral systems regulating energy expenditure have been identified as contributing to this imbalance [1,2]. The current view of the recent dramatic increase in the incidence of the obesity implicates the