Objective: To evaluate the differences in the consumption of fruit and vegetables between groups with different socio-economic status (SES) in the adult population of European countries. Design: A systematic review of published and unpublished surveys of food habits conducted between 1985 and 1999 in 15 European countries. Educational level and occupational status were used as indicators of SES. A pooled estimate of the mean difference between the highest and the lowest level of education and occupation was calculated separately for men and women, using DerSimonian and Laird's random effects model. Setting: The inclusion criteria of studies were: use of a validated method for assessing intake at the individual level; selection of a nationwide sample or a representative sample of a region; and providing the mean and standard deviation of overall fruit and vegetable consumption for each level of education or occupation, and separately for men and women. Subjects: Participants in the individual surveys had to be adults (18 ± 85 y). Results: Eleven studies from seven countries met the criteria for being included in the meta-analysis. A higher SES was associated with a greater consumption of both fruit and vegetables. The pooled estimate of the difference in the intake of fruit was 24.3 gapersonaday (95% con®dence interval (CI) 14.0 ± 34.7) between men in the highest level of education and those in the lowest level of education. Similarly, this difference was 33.6 gapersonaday for women (95% CI 22.5 ± 44.8). The differences regarding vegetables were 17.0 gapersonaday (95% CI 8.6 ± 25.5) for men and 13.4 gapersonaday (95% CI 7.1 ± 19.7) for women. The results were in the same direction when occupation instead of education was used as an indicator of SES. Conclusions: Although we cannot exclude over-reporting of intake by those with highest SES, it is unlikely that this potential bias could fully explain the differences we have found. Our results suggest that an unhealthier nutrition pattern may exist among adults belonging to lower socio-economic levels in Europe. Sponsorship: The present study was supported by the European Union's FAIR programme .

Objective: To specify the principles, definition and dimensions of the new nutrition science.

No abstract

Higher and lower socioeconomic groups have different sources of saturated fats. Higher social classes use more cheese whereas lower social classes use more butter or animal fats. This can be observed especially in countries where the consumption of cheese is increasing and that of butter decreasing. Higher social classes prefer modern foods, lower classes traditional foods.

Downloaded by [University of Arizona] at 01:26 11 June 2016 2 V. RASCHKE ET AL.We have recently reported on the myriad health benefits of traditional East African foods and food habits. However, this region continues to experience a nutrition transition whereby traditional, well-tried foods have been systematically replaced with the products of multinational corporations. The health-related impact has been devastating, as evidenced by current non-communicable disease (NCD) trends. The purpose of the present investigation was to review the historic Oltersdorf Collection (data collated by the Max-Planck Nutrition Research Unit, Bumbuli Tanzania from the 1930s to 1960s) to determine if adherence to traditional East African food habits was positively associated with health status indices in populations residing in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda during this period. The systematic review process resulted in six investigations being identified. Published between 1963 and 1969, these are likely the first investigations to provide original data pertaining to dietary intake/adequacy and health status indices within specific East African cohorts. Overall, the review revealed that many ethnic groups did not exhibit adequate dietary intake and did not consume a diversity of traditional whole foods representative of the wide spectrum of food choices available within the region at this time. NCDs such as obesity, hypertension, and type 2 diabetes were not reported in any investigation. However, there was substantial reporting of malnutrition-related and infectious diseases, particularly among children. The present review supports the contention that the shift from a traditional, diversified diet to a simplified, monotonous diet may have occurred with the onset of cash-crop farming. For resolution of nutrition-related epidemics currently plaguing Africa, including NCDs and malnutrition-related diseases (i.e., the double burden) it is critically important to investigate and disseminate evidence related to the fundamental contributors to the nutrition transition.