Personalized Nutrient Profiling of Food Patterns: Nestlé’s Nutrition Algorithm Applied to Dietary Intakes from NHANES

Abstract

Nutrient profiling (NP) models have been used to assess the nutritional quality of single foods. NP methodologies can also serve to assess the quality of total food patterns. The objective of this study was to construct a personalized nutrient-based scoring system for diet quality and optimal calories. The new Nestlé Nutrition Algorithm (NNA) is based on age and gender-specific healthy ranges for energy and nutrient intakes over a 24 h period. To promote nutrient balance, energy and nutrient intakes either below or above pre-defined healthy ranges are assigned lower diet quality scores. NNA-generated diet quality scores for female 2007–2014 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) participants were compared to their Healthy Eating Index (HEI) 2010 scores. Comparisons involved correlations, joint contingency tables, and Bland Altman plots. The NNA approach showed good correlations with the HEI 2010 scores. NNA mean scores for 7 days of two exemplary menu plans (MyPlate and DASH) were 0.88 ± 0.05 (SD) and 0.91 ± 0.02 (SD), respectively. By contrast, diets of NHANES participants scored 0.45 ± 0.14 (SD) and 0.48 ± 0.14 on first and second days, respectively. The NNA successfully captured the high quality of MyPlate and Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) menu plans and the lower quality of diets actually consumed in the US.

Designing Optimal Breakfast for the United States Using Linear Programming and the NHANES 2011–2014 Database: A Study from the International Breakfast Research Initiative (IBRI)

“…We chose to use the What We Eat in America (WWEIA) scheme, since it was more granular than the USDA MyPlate scheme and therefore better suited to linear programming [28]. Whereas the MyPlate scheme does split grains into refined and whole grains, the present WWEIA scheme does not [29]. By contrast, the present scheme separates dairy and protein foods into multiple categories, whereas MyPlate does not.…”

Development and validation of a meal quality index with applications to NHANES 2005-2014

“…The MBI is an adaptation of the 24h diet score previously developed and validated by Mainardi et al [ 14 ]. Nutrients that were selected for inclusion in the MBI are 9 out of the 16 nutrients used in that model.…”

“…Meals with energy between 200 and 1200 kcals, consumed by males and females at least 4 years old scored, on average (SD) 45.5 (14). Meals from exemplary menu plans scored on average (SD) 75.9 (14). Their respective distributions are shown in Fig 3 as boxplots. In Table 3 we summarize the scores of the main eating occasions in NHANES and in the menu plans.…”

“…Meals with energy between 200 and 1200 kcals, consumed by males and females at least 4 years old scored, on average (SD) 45.5 (14). Meals from exemplary menu plans scored on average (SD) 75.9 (14).…”

“…compares the scores of lunch meals from NHANES, age 4+, calculated as the unweighted average of 16 nutrient scores[14] (horizontal axis), and the weighted average of the selected 9 nutrient scores, as defined inFig 1.The average and standard deviation on the x-axis and yaxis were 40 ± 14 and 48 ± 18, respectively.Similar results, not shown here, were found for the other main eating occasions: breakfast and dinner.…”