Food-Insecure Women Eat a Less Diverse Diet in a More Temporally Variable Way: Evidence from the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2013-4.

Food-Insecure Women Eat a Less Diverse Diet in a More Temporally Variable Way: Evidence from the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2013-4. J Obes. 2019;2019:7174058 Authors: Nettle D, Bateson M Abstract Food insecurity is associated with high body weight amongst women, but not men, in high-income countries. Previous research using food recalls suggests that the total energy intake of food-insecure women is not elevated, though macronutrient composition may differ from that of food-secure women. There is limited evidence on temporal patterns of food consumption. Here, we used food recalls from women in the 2013-4 cycle of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES, n = 2798) to characterise temporal patterns of food consumption in relation to food insecurity. Compared to the food-secure, food-insecure women had more variable time gaps between eating; ate a smaller and less variable number of distinct foods at a time; were more variable from day to day in their time of first consumption; were more variable from day to day in the number of times they ate; and consumed relatively more carbohydrate, less protein, and less fibre. However, their overall energy intake was no higher. Food-insecure women had higher BMIs (2.25 kg/m2), and around 15% of the BMI difference between food-insecure and food-secure women was accounted for by their more variable time gaps between eating, their lower diversity ...
Source: Journal of Obesity - Category: Eating Disorders & Weight Management Tags: J Obes Source Type: research