The Effect of Keeping Food Records on Eating Patterns

Abstract

Historically, food records were considered the "gold standard" of dietary assessment and were used to establish the validity of other methods of assessment ( (1) Willett W. Reynolds R.D. Cottrell-Hoehner S. Sampson L. Browne M.L. Validation of a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire comparison with a 1-year diet record. J Am Diet Assoc. 1987; 87: 43-47 Google Scholar , (2) Block G. Woods M. Potosky A. Clifford C. Validation of the self-administered diet history questionnaire using multiple diet records. J Clin Epidemiol. 1990; 43: 1327-1335 Google Scholar , (3) Jain M. Howe G.R. Rohan T. Dietary assessment in epidemiology comparison of a food frequency and a diet history questionnaire with a 7-day food record. Am J Epidemiol. 1996; 143: 953-960 Google Scholar ). However, studies using an objective method of estimating energy intake, doubly labeled water, have found that food records significantly underestimate energy intakes ( (4) Martin L.J. Su W. Jones P.J. Lockwood G.A. Tritchler D.L. Boyd N.F. Comparison of energy intakes determined by food records and doubly labeled water in women participating in a dietary-intervention trial. Am J Clin Nutr. 1996; 63: 483-490 Google Scholar , (5) Black A.E. Goldberg G.R. Jebb S.A. Livingston M.B.E. Cole T.J. Prentice A.M. Critical evaluation of energy intake data using fundamental principles of energy physiology 2. evaluating the results of published studies. Eur J Clin Nutr. 1991; 45: 583-599 Google Scholar ).