[Caloric value of food and coverage of the recommended nutritional intake of vitamins in the adult human. Principle foods containing vitamins].

Two daily food consumption models were defined. One of them (I) is representative of the French eating habits, the other (E) of a diet with a theoretically balanced content of macronutrients for a caloric intake of 2,500 kcal. For each of these two models, four menus were calculated to obtain four caloric levels (1,500, 2,000, 2,500 and 3,000 kcal). The vitamin content of these menus was established on the basis of the literature (food composition tables). Nutritional losses resulting from usual cooking methods were taken into account. The results show that the dietary intake of some vitamins, such as folic acid, pantothenic acid, vitamin A, beta-carotene, vitamin C and B1, was likely to be inadequate and are in agreement with those of epidemiologic surveys carried out in developed countries. The threshold of 80% of the recommended allowances is not reached with a caloric level of 2,500 kcal (balanced diet) or 2,700 kcal (unbalanced diet). For an allowance of 1,500 kcal, most of the vitamins do not reach or just reach 50% of the recommended level. This result shows that the former eating habits of the French population, whose caloric intake was high (more than 3,000 kcal), were correct as they covered the recommended intakes of micronutrients. This work corroborates the great importance of some food groups in covering the recommended vitamin intakes and underlines the necessity of diversifying food.