Evaluation of a photographic food atlas as a tool for quantifying food portion size in the United Arab Emirates

Abstract

Although, United Arab Emirates (UAE) has one of the highest prevalence of overweight, obesity and type 2 diabetes in the world, however, validated dietary assessment aids to estimate food intake of individuals and populations in the UAE are currently lacking. We conducted two observational studies to evaluate the accuracy of a photographic food atlas which was developed as a tool for food portion size estimation in the UAE. The UAE Food Atlas presents eight portion sizes for each food. Study 1 involved portion size estimations of 13 food items consumed during the previous day. Study 2 involved portion size estimations of nine food items immediately after consumption. Differences between the food portion sizes estimated from the photographs and the weighed food portions (estimation error), as well as the percentage differences relative to the weighed food portion for each tested food item were calculated. Four of the evaluated food items were underestimated (by -8.9% to -18.4%), while nine were overestimated (by 9.5% to 90.9%) in Study 1. Moreover, there were significant differences between estimated and eaten food portions for eight food items (P<0.05). In Study 2, one food item was underestimated (-8.1%) while eight were overestimated (range 2.52% to 82.1%). Furthermore, there were significant differences between estimated and eaten food portions (P<0.05) for six food items. The limits of agreement between the estimated and consumed food portion size were wide indicating a large variability in food portion estimation errors. These reported findings highlight the need for further developments of the UAE Food Atlas to improve the accuracy of food portion size intake estimations in dietary assessments. Additionally, recalling food portions from the previous day did not seem to increase food portion estimation errors in this study.

Comparative Analysis of the Effects of Daily Eating Habits and Physical Activity on Anthropometric Parameters in Elementary School Children in Latvia: Pach Study

“…Current evidence suggests that eating while viewing the screen leads to obesity in children [ 27 ], thus an additional analysis estimating differences in BMI, WC, and other measured parameters were analyzed in pupils eating at the table and pupils eating in front of the screen. More detailed description of the survey items, answers, and correspondingly adapted scoring system (0–6 points) for the total number of unhealthy EH [ 11 , 20 , 21 , 24 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 ] is presented in Table A1 .…”

“…Pictures representing the size of portions were chosen from the Photographic Atlas of Food Portions for the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, 2014 [ 37 ]. More detailed description of the estimation of portion sizes in grams [ 32 ] is presented in Table A1 .…”

“… Portion Size of Carbohydrate Rich Food How big a portion of pasta, buckwheat, rice or potatoes do you usually have on your plate? [ 32 ] Children were able to choose the most common portion size of the meal from six given pictures. I don’t eat 97 g *; 56 g **; 56 g *** 175 g *; 85 g **; 108 g *** 253 g *; 145 g **;168 g *** 331 g *;174 g **; 191 g *** 486 g *;234 g **; 308 g *** Portion Size of Vegetables/Salad How big a portion of vegetables, salad do you usually have on your plate?…”

“… I don’t eat 97 g *; 56 g **; 56 g *** 175 g *; 85 g **; 108 g *** 253 g *; 145 g **;168 g *** 331 g *;174 g **; 191 g *** 486 g *;234 g **; 308 g *** Portion Size of Vegetables/Salad How big a portion of vegetables, salad do you usually have on your plate? [ 32 ] Portion Size of Protein Rich Food How big a portion of meat or fish do you usually have on your plate? [ 32 ] Vegetables How many serves of vegetables do you usually eat per day?…”

Validation of photograph series as a portion size measurement aid in dietary assessment in children

“…The protocol in our validation study was designed based on the validation of photograph series in the PANCAKE project (12). Similar studies for the purpose of developing countryspecific portion size measurement aids have been carried out in Italy, France, the United Kingdom, Finland, the United Arab Emirates, and other countries (10,(13)(14)(15)(16)(17).…”