Dietary intakes of European, Māori, Pacific and Asian adults living in Auckland: the Diabetes, Heart and Health Study.
OBJECTIVE
To compare dietary intakes of European, Māori, Pacific, and Asian men and women living in Auckland.


METHODS
Daily nutrient intakes were calculated from a self-administered food frequency questionnaire from participants in a cross-sectional health screening study carried out between 2002 and 2003. Participants were 4,007 Māori, Pacific, Asian and European people (1,915 men, 2,092 women) aged 35 to 74 years.


RESULTS
Compared with Europeans, Māori and Pacific men had higher total energy intakes per day, while Asians had lower intakes. A similar pattern was observed for carbohydrate and fat consumption. While protein and cholesterol consumption tended to be lower in Europeans than the other three ethnic groups, alcohol consumption and calcium intakes were highest among Europeans. Many of the differences between ethnic groups were attenuated when nutrient consumption was expressed as their percentage contribution to total energy intake suggesting that total food consumption was the major determinant of ethnic differences in nutrient intakes.


CONCLUSIONS
There were substantial differences in dietary habits, food selections and cooking practices between European, Māori, Pacific and Asian participants. However, the observed differences were in the area of serving sizes and frequency of consumption of certain foods than to major differences in the range of foods and nutrients consumed or the percentage contribution of carbohydrate, fat or protein to total energy intake.


CONCLUSIONS
The development of strategies to reduce serving sizes and the frequency of consumption of certain foods will be required to help address the major nutrition-related health problems in New Zealand.
Metcalf
Patricia A
PA
Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and Department of Statistics, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand. p.metcalf@auckland.ac.nz
Scragg
Robert R K
RR
Schaaf
David
D
Dyall
Lorna
L
Black
Peter N
PN
Jackson
Rod
R
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D044466:Asian People; D003296:Cooking; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000208:ethnology / Q000378:metabolism; D004034:Diet Surveys; D004435:Eating / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000502:physiology; D002149:Energy Intake / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D005518:Food Preferences / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000502:physiology; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000208:ethnology / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009520:New Zealand; D044382:Population Groups / Q000145:classification / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012307:Risk Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D044465:White People