Publications by authors named "Kirsten Herrick"

Time-restricted eating (TRE) is a type of intermittent fasting (IF). Food can be consumed as desired during the eating period, but not during the remainder of the day. Studies suggest that many of the health benefits of fasting may not simply be the result of weight loss, but also due to the body's responses to the fasting that lead to improved metabolic functioning.

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Article Synopsis
  • The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute held a virtual workshop in September 2022 to explore effective methods for measuring diet, physical activity, and sleep, identifying research gaps and future directions.
  • Key discussions highlighted the integration of self-reported data from questionnaires with device-based assessments like wearables and biomarkers to improve chronic disease understanding.
  • The workshop emphasized the need for data harmonization and standardization to enhance analysis through AI and machine learning, ultimately aiming to improve accuracy and comparability of lifestyle behavior studies.
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Background: Differences in nutrient intakes by urbanization level in the Unites States is not well understood.

Objective: Describe, by urbanization level: 1) intake of protein, fiber, percent of energy from added sugars (AS) and saturated fat (SF), calcium, iron, potassium, sodium, and vitamin D; 2) the percent of the population meeting nutrient recommendations.

Methods: Twenty-four-hour dietary recalls from 23,107 participants aged 2 y and over from the 2013-2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys were analyzed.

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  • The goal of the gathering was to bring together experts from various fields to create a research plan focused on the relationship between processed food consumption and the risk of obesity and cardiometabolic diseases in the U.S. !*
  • Attendees participated in discussions about the effects of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) on health, exploring foundational knowledge, potential mechanisms, and gaps in current research during breakout sessions. !*
  • Six key research questions were developed to guide future studies, addressing topics like improving UPF classification, assessing intake, and understanding environmental influences on UPF consumption. !*
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Background: Although prior evidence indicates that water intake is important for health, the ability to accurately measure community-dwelling intake is limited. Only a few studies have evaluated self-reported water intake against an objective recovery biomarker.

Objectives: The aim was to compare preformed water intakes (all sources including food) by multiple Automated Self-Administered 24-h recalls (ASA24s), food frequency questionnaires (FFQs), and 4-d food records (4DFRs) against a recovery biomarker, doubly labeled water (DLW), to assess measurement error.

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Background: Time spent on screens and adiposity change rapidly from childhood to adolescence, with differences by gender and race/ethnicity.

Objective: Apply time-varying effect models (TVEMs) to a nationally representative sample of youth to identify the age ranges when the cross-sectional associations between television viewing, computer use, and adiposity are significant.

Methods: Data from 8 to 15-year-olds (n = 3593) from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2011-2018) were extracted.

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  • High intake of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) in infants and toddlers is linked to an increased risk of chronic diseases, highlighting the need to assess their impact on early diet quality in the U.S.
  • A study analyzed the food consumption of infants and toddlers aged 6-23 months using data from a national health survey, finding that about 45% of their energy intake from complementary foods came from UPFs, while 42% came from unprocessed or minimally processed foods (U/MPFs).
  • The results showed that while U/MPFs supported better nutrient intake overall, UPFs were significant sources of iron and zinc, but also contributed high levels of added sugars and sodium, indicating the need for further research on
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Background: Objective markers of ultraprocessed foods (UPF) may improve the assessment of UPF intake and provide insight into how UPF influences health.

Objectives: To identify metabolites that differed between dietary patterns (DPs) high in or void of UPF according to Nova classification.

Methods: In a randomized, crossover, controlled-feeding trial (clinicaltrials.

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The Healthy Eating Index-Toddlers-2020 (HEI-Toddlers-2020) is a measure for assessing how well a set of foods aligns with new guidance in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025 (DGA) for toddlers aged 12 through 23 months. This new tool was developed using consistent features and the guiding principles of the HEI. The HEI-Toddlers-2020, like HEI-2020, has 13 components reflecting all constituents of dietary intake, except for human milk or infant formula.

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The Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025 includes guidance for infants and toddlers aged birth to 24 months. To assess alignment with this new guidance, the Healthy Eating Index (HEI)-Toddlers-2020 was developed for toddlers 12 through 23 months old. This monograph focuses on the continuity, considerations, and future directions of this new index for toddlers in the context of evolving dietary guidance.

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Background: With the addition of new guidance for children from birth to 24 months in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025 (DGA), a Healthy Eating Index (HEI) was developed for toddlers.

Objective: To evaluate the psychometric properties of the HEI-Toddlers-2020, 5 analyses relevant to construct and concurrent validity and 2 related to reliability were examined.

Design: Twenty-four-hour diet recall data from the cross-sectional National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2011-2018) were used.

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The purpose of this review is to share the process for reviewing, updating, and developing the most recent version of the Healthy Eating Index-2020 (HEI-2020) for ages 2 and older, following the release of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA), 2020-2025. The overall review process included: 1) gathering information from the updated DGA, experts, and federal stakeholders; 2) considering substantive changes and needs for new development, keeping in mind the HEI's key features and guiding principles, the US Department of Agriculture's Dietary Patterns that serve as the foundation for the HEI, and scoring considerations; and 3) completing evaluation analyses, including the examination of content validity. The review process led to the development of the HEI-2020; a separate HEI-Toddlers-2020 was developed for ages 12 through 23 months.

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Background: Assessment of individual and population-level dietary intake is critical for public health surveillance, epidemiology, and dietary intervention research. In recognition of that need, the National Insitutes of Health (NIH) has a history of funding research projects designed to support the development, implementation, and refinement of tools to assess dietary intake in humans.

Objectives: This report provides data and information on NIH-funded dietary intake assessment methodological research over the period of 2012-2021.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study discusses the importance of food processing in relation to health outcomes and aims to standardize food processing classification systems for diet data analysis.
  • It focuses on applying the Nova food processing classification to dietary data from the 2001-2018 What We Eat in America (WWEIA) and NHANES surveys, examining the energy contributions of different food categories.
  • Results indicate ultraprocessed foods comprised about 58.2% of energy intake, while unprocessed or minimally processed foods made up 27.6%, highlighting the need for standardized methods to accurately assess dietary impacts.
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Background: Differences in food access, availability, affordability, and dietary intake are influenced by the food environment, which includes outlets where foods are obtained. These differences between food outlets within rural and urban food environments in the United States are not well understood.

Objectives: The aim of this analysis is to describe the contribution of foods and beverages from 6 outlets-grocery stores, convenience stores, full-service restaurants, quick-service restaurants, schools, and other outlets-to the total energy intake and Healthy Eating Index (HEI)-2015 scores in the United States population, by urbanization level (nonmetropolitan statistical areas [MSAs], small-to-medium MSAs, and large MSAs).

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Background: High energy intake from non-nutrient-dense sources correlates with poorer diet quality.

Objectives: The aims were to 1) estimate total energy intake and energy from solid fats and added sugars combined (SoFAS) and identify their top food category sources for ages 2-18 y in 2015-2018 and 2) describe trends over time in 2009-2018.

Methods: Data were from the NHANES.

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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.

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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.

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Heterogeneity in meat food groups hinders interpretation of research regarding meat intake and chronic disease risk. Our objective was to investigate how heterogeneity in red meat (RM) and poultry food groups influences US population intake estimates. Based on a prior systematic review, we created an ontology of methods used to estimate RM [1= unprocessed RM; 2 (reference)= unprocessed RM + processed RM; 3= unprocessed RM + processed RM + processed poultry; and 4=unprocessed RM + processed RM + processed poultry + chicken patties/nuggets/tenders (PNT)] and three for poultry [A=unprocessed poultry; B= unprocessed poultry + PNT; C (reference)= unprocessed poultry + processed poultry + PNT).

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Background: Standardized methods are needed to investigate intake patterns of processed meat subtypes, considering health concerns surrounding processed meat intake.

Objectives: The objectives of this study were to create a standardized method of disaggregating processed meat into processed red meat and processed poultry and describe intake patterns of the US population aged ≥2 y.

Methods: Two researchers independently manually disaggregated processed meat from the Food Patterns Equivalents Database into processed red meat and processed poultry based on available information from the Foods and Nutrient Database for Dietary Studies.

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Complementary foods and beverages (CFBs) are key components of an infant's diet in the second 6 months of life. This article summarizes nutrition and feeding practices examined by the 2020 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committees during the CFB life stage. Breastfeeding initiation is high (84%), but exclusive breastfeeding at 6 months (26%) is below the Healthy People 2030 goal (42%).

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