title: Inclusion of pork meat in the diets of young women reduces their intakes of energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods: results from a randomized controlled trial.
abstract: Adherence of young women to dietary recommendations has been examined predominantly by surveys. This study aimed to determine the quality of women's diets relative to the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating (AGHE); and to evaluate dietary changes during an intervention trial with pork meat or an iron supplement. A 12-week randomized trial was conducted in young women who were assigned to one of three groups. They maintained three, seven-day food diaries while continuing their routine diet (CG); taking an iron supplement (SG); or incorporating into their diets 500 g/week of pork (PG). Participants (n = 58) provided dietary information on 1218 diary-days. The serves consumed from the vegetable, fruit and dairy groups were lower (p < 0.001), and from the meat and alternatives group greater (p < 0.001) than the recommended serves. PG consumed significantly fewer (p < 0.001) serves of "extra" foods, and ate fruit more frequently (p < 0.001) than CG and SG. The participants' dietary self-assessment showed poor agreement with the AGHE description of "serve". The inclusion of pork in the diets of young women is associated with the reduced consumption of energy-dense nutrient-poor "extra" foods and increased frequency of fruit intake. The effect may be explained by diverse factors such as increased food knowledge, cooking skills and the effect of pork on satiety.
authors.affiliation: Discipline of Nutrition and Metabolism, School of Molecular Bioscience, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia. jennifer.mcarthur@sydney.edu.au.
authors.forename: Jennifer O
authors.initials: JO
authors.lastname: McArthur
authors.affiliation: Discipline of Nutrition and Metabolism, School of Molecular Bioscience, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia. ngou3547@uni.sydney.edu.au.
authors.forename: Natalie M
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: Gough
authors.affiliation: Department of Statistics, Macquarie University, Ryde, NSW 2109, Australia. peter.petocz@mq.edu.au.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Petocz
authors.affiliation: Discipline of Nutrition and Metabolism, School of Molecular Bioscience, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia. samir.samman@otago.ac.nz.
authors.forename: Samir
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Samman
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D004032:Diet; D015930:Diet Records; D004435:Eating; D002149:Energy Intake / Q000502:physiology*; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D005504:Food Analysis; D006801:Humans; D008460:Meat; D013552:Swine; D055815:Young Adult