title: Number of dishes as an indicator of nutrient intake in China.
abstract: The objectives of this analysis are to investigate if counting the number of dishes consumed per day is a rapid procedure for estimating daily nutrient intake in China, and to explore if urban-rural differences exist in the daily number of dishes. A nutritional survey (including dish number counting) was conducted on 499 adult women in six urban and four rural communities in China. The number of dishes was an influential variable in estimating intake of protein, animal protein, fat, animal fat, and some vitamins (e.g., vitamin B2) and minerals (e.g., zinc), but not of energy and carbohydrate. Intake of some nutrients (e.g., protein) was sufficient when people consume more than 10 dishes per day. Thus, the number of dishes is a useful indicator of sufficient intake of animal protein and fat as well as some micro-nutrients. The application of the dish number counting method showed that there was a significant difference between urban (11.9 dishes per day) and rural populations (7.9 dishes).
authors.affiliation: Miyagi Univesity, Taiwa-cho, Japan.
authors.forename: Haruo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nakatsuka
authors.forename: Zuo-Wen
authors.initials: ZW
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Takao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Watanabe
authors.forename: Shinichiro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shinbo
authors.forename: Naoko
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Matsuda-Inoguchi
authors.forename: Jiang-Bin
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Qu
authors.forename: Kae
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Higashikawa
authors.forename: Masayuki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ikeda
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002681:China; D003625:Data Collection; D004032:Diet; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D018673:Nutrition Policy; D009752:Nutritional Status; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012424:Rural Population; D014505:Urban Population