Food serving size knowledge in African American women and the relationship with body mass index.
OBJECTIVE
To examine serving size knowledge in African Americans and how it is related to body mass index (BMI).


METHODS
Serving size knowledge of food commonly consumed by African Americans was assessed by asking the subjects to select the amount of food considered to be a single serving size by the United States Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration. Seventeen food items were tested, and the amounts selected were weighed. Body mass index was estimated from measured height and weight.


METHODS
Churches.


METHODS
Ninety-five African American women.


METHODS
Amount of food selected and BMI.


METHODS
The amount of food selected was compared with the respective standard serving using the 1-sample Wilcoxon signed rank test. The association between BMI and the amount selected was assessed by logistic regression.


RESULTS
The subjects significantly overestimated (P = .001 to .02) serving sizes for cornflakes, apple, watermelon, butter, whole milk, chips, and regular soda. Body mass index was significantly associated with overestimation of cornflakes, butter, cookies, and macaroni and cheese (P = .01 to .03), and the odds ratio for overestimating these food items was 1.46-1.65 times greater per 5-unit increase in BMI.


CONCLUSIONS
African American women overestimated the serving sizes for 7 of the food items tested, and 4 of the estimates were correlated with BMI. Education regarding serving size is recommended for certain food items.
Shah
Meena
M
Department of Kinesiology, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX 76129, USA. m.shah@tcu.edu
Adams-Huet
Beverley
B
Elston
Elizabeth
E
Hubbard
Stacy
S
Carson
Kristin
K
D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000193:education / Q000523:psychology*; D015992:Body Mass Index; D005260:Female; D005502:Food / Q000145:classification*; D006266:Health Education; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D052756:Nutritional Sciences / Q000193:education*; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric