Healthy School Meals for All in Utah.

Background: The National School Lunch and School Breakfast programs reduce food insecurity and improve dietary intake. During the COVID-19 pandemic, school meals were provided to all children at no cost, regardless of income. This policy is known as Healthy School Meals For All (HSMFA).

Construct validity and reliability of the Canadian Eating Practices Screener to assess eating practices based on 2019 Canada's Food Guide recommendations.

For the first time since its introduction, the 2019 Canada's Food Guide (2019-CFG) highlighted specific guidance on eating practices, i.e., recommendations on where, when, why, and how to eat.

Development of the Canadian Eating Practices Screener to assess eating practices based on 2019 Canada's Food Guide recommendations.

In 2019, Health Canada released a new iteration of Canada's Food Guide (2019-CFG), which, for the first time, highlighted recommendations regarding eating practices, i.e., guidance on where, when, why, and how to eat.

The Canadian Food Intake Screener for assessing alignment of adults' dietary intake with the 2019 Canada's Food Guide healthy food choices recommendations: scoring system and construct validity.

The Canadian Food Intake Screener was developed to rapidly assess alignment of dietary intake with the Canada's Food Guide-2019 healthy food choices recommendations. Scoring is aligned with the Healthy Eating Food Index-2019 to the extent possible. Among a sample of adults, reasonable variation in screener scores was noted, mean screener scores differed between some subgroups with known differences in diet quality, and a moderate correlation between screener scores and total Healthy Eating Food Index-2019 scores based on repeat 24 h dietary recalls was observed.

New Exponential Scoring Functions for Diet Quality Indexes Solve Problems Caused by Truncation.

Background: Diet quality indexes, including the Healthy Eating Index, assess diets based on usual dietary intakes and a scoring function. Nearly all diet quality indexes use scoring functions that have floors and ceilings, thereby truncating the scores and losing information about intakes outside the scoring range. This score truncation has 2 important impacts: 1) the index does not reflect all intakes; and 2) the assumption that measurement error in intake reporting has a neutral impact on the diet quality score cannot be upheld.

The Accuracy of Portion Size Reporting on Self-Administered Online 24-Hour Dietary Recalls Among Women With Low Incomes.

Background: Accurately estimating portion sizes remains a challenge in dietary assessment. Digital images used in online 24-hour dietary recalls may be conducive to accuracy.

Objective: The current analyses were conducted to examine the accuracy of portion size estimation by women with low incomes who completed 24-hour dietary recalls using the online Automated Self-Administered 24-hour Dietary Assessment Tool (ASA24) in the Food and Eating Assessment Study II.

Using Short-Term Dietary Intake Data to Address Research Questions Related to Usual Dietary Intake among Populations and Subpopulations: Assumptions, Statistical Techniques, and Considerations.

Many research questions focused on characterizing usual, or long-term average, dietary intake of populations and subpopulations rely on short-term intake data. The objective of this paper is to review key assumptions, statistical techniques, and considerations underpinning the use of short-term dietary intake data to make inference about usual dietary intake. The focus is on measurement error and strategies to mitigate its effects on estimated characteristics of population-level usual intake, with attention to relevant analytic issues such as accounting for survey design.

Evaluation of the Healthy Eating Food Index (HEFI)-2019 measuring adherence to Canada's Food Guide 2019 recommendations on healthy food choices.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the construct validity and reliability of the Healthy Eating Food Index-2019 (HEFI-2019), which was developed to measure adherence to Canada's Food Guide 2019 (CFG-2019) recommendations on healthy food choices. Dietary intake data from 24-hour dietary recalls in the 2015 Canadian Community Health Survey-Nutrition were used for that purpose. Multidimensionality was examined using principal component analysis.

New Exponential Scoring Functions for Diet Quality Indexes Solve Problems Caused by Truncation.

Background: Diet quality indexes, including the Healthy Eating Index, assess diets based on usual dietary intakes and a scoring function. Nearly all diet quality indexes use scoring functions that have floors and ceilings, thereby truncating the scores and losing information about intakes outside the scoring range. This score truncation has 2 important impacts: 1) the index does not reflect all intakes; and 2) the assumption that measurement error in intake reporting has a neutral impact on the diet quality score cannot be upheld.

The Total Nutrient Index is a Useful Measure for Assessing Total Micronutrient Exposures Among US Adults.

Background: Most dietary indices reflect foods and beverages and do not include exposures from dietary supplements (DS) that provide substantial amounts of micronutrients. A nutrient-based approach that captures total intake inclusive of DS can strengthen exposure assessment.

Objectives: We examined the construct and criterion validity of the Total Nutrient Index (TNI) among US adults (≥19 years; nonpregnant or lactating).

A narrative review of nutrient based indexes to assess diet quality and the proposed total nutrient index that reflects total dietary exposures.

A priori dietary indices provide a standardized, reproducible way to evaluate adherence to dietary recommendations across different populations. Existing nutrient-based indices were developed to reflect food/beverage intake; however, given the high prevalence of dietary supplement (DS) use and its potentially large contribution to nutrient intakes for those that use them, exposure classification without accounting for DS is incomplete. The purpose of this article is to review existing nutrient-based indices and describe the development of the Total Nutrient Index (TNI), an index developed to capture usual intakes from all sources of under-consumed micronutrients among the U.

Healthy Eating Index-2015 Scores Among Adults Based on Observed vs Recalled Dietary Intake.

Background: The construct and predictive validity of the Healthy Eating Index (HEI) have been demonstrated, but how error in reported dietary intake may affect scores is unclear.

Objective: These analyses examined concordance between HEI-2015 scores based on observed vs reported intake among adults.

Design: Data were from two feeding studies (Food and Eating Assessment STudy, or FEAST, I and II) in which true intake was observed for three meals on 1 day.

Association of food insecurity with dietary intakes and nutritional biomarkers among US children, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2011-2016.

Background: Food insecurity is associated with poorer nutrient intakes from food sources and lower dietary supplement use. However, its association with total usual nutrient intakes, inclusive of dietary supplements, and biomarkers of nutritional status among US children remains unknown.

Objective: The objective was to assess total usual nutrient intakes, Healthy Eating Index-2015 (HEI-2015) scores, and nutritional biomarkers by food security status, sex, and age among US children.

Effectiveness of Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program in Changing Nutrition-Related Outcomes Among Adults With Low Income: A Systematic Review.

Objective: To review the effect of the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) in changing nutrition-related outcomes.

Methods: Relevant research conducted before December 2020 was identified using PubMed, Web of Science, Google Scholar, and the EFNEP Research Database. The methodological quality of each eligible study was assessed.

Measuring Dietary Botanical Diversity as a Proxy for Phytochemical Exposure.

The study of natural plant molecules and their medicinal properties, pharmacognosy, provides a taxonomy for botanical families that represent diverse chemical groupings with potentially distinct functions in relation to human health. Yet, this reservoir of knowledge has not been systematically applied to elucidating the role of patterns of plant food consumption on gut microbial ecology and function. All chemical classes of dietary phytochemicals can affect the composition of the microbes that colonize the gut and their function.

Positive Change in Healthy Eating Scores Among Adults With Low Income After Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program Participation.

Objective: Using 24-hour dietary recalls, compare Healthy Eating Index (HEI)-2005 scores of Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program participants before and after 8-12 weekly lessons.

Design: Analysis of preexisting 24-hour dietary recalls information collected from October, 2012 through September, 2014.

Participants: Participants with complete pre-post dietary data (n = 122,961); subset of those with complete demographic data (n = 97,522).

Fruit and Vegetable Healthy Eating Index Component Scores of Distributed Food Bags Were Positively Associated with Client Diet Scores in a Sample of Rural, Midwestern Food Pantries.

Background: Food pantries have the potential to improve the quality of clients' diets.

Objective: This study evaluated the relationship between the quality of the mix of foods in pantry inventories and client food bags (separately), as assessed by the Healthy Eating Index-2010 (HEI-2010), with client diet quality and how these relationships varied by food security status.

Design: This cross-sectional, secondary analysis used baseline data from the Voices for Food intervention study (Clinical Trial Registry: NCT03566095).

Older adults with obesity have higher risks of some micronutrient inadequacies and lower overall dietary quality compared to peers with a healthy weight, National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES), 2011-2014.

Objective: To evaluate total usual intakes and biomarkers of micronutrients, overall dietary quality and related health characteristics of US older adults who were overweight or obese compared with a healthy weight.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Setting: Two 24-h dietary recalls, nutritional biomarkers and objective and subjective health characteristic data were analysed from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2011-2014.

Dietary Supplement Use and Its Micronutrient Contribution During Pregnancy and Lactation in the United States.

Objective: To estimate the prevalence of use and the micronutrient contribution of dietary supplements among pregnant, lactating, and nonpregnant and nonlactating women in the United States.

Methods: Cross-sectional data from 1,314 pregnant, 297 lactating, and 8,096 nonpregnant and nonlactating women (aged 20-44 years) in the 1999-2014 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey were combined to produce statistically reliable, nationally representative estimates. Information about dietary supplements used in the past 30 days was collected through an interviewer-administered questionnaire and in-home inventory.

Total Usual Micronutrient Intakes Compared to the Dietary Reference Intakes among U.S. Adults by Food Security Status.

This study examined total usual micronutrient intakes from foods, beverages, and dietary supplements (DS) compared to the Dietary Reference Intakes among U.S. adults (≥19 years) by sex and food security status using NHANES 2011-2014 data ( = 9954).