The Food and Nutrition Board of the National Academy of Sciences under contract from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was charged to study the sources of data on food consumption and to suggest a system for integrating these data with data on nutrition and health status.

This paper provides an updated analysis of the dietary patterns of Malawian households and their consumption of select nutrients - calories, protein, iron, vitamin A, zinc, and folate - using data from the third (2010/11) and fourth (2016/17) rounds of the Malawi Integrated Household Survey (IHS). Changes in food and nutrient consumption patterns between the two survey periods are examined across household wealth categories and across regions. Dietary diversity and patterns of food and nutrient consumption are found to differ significantly between rural and urban areas. Whereas urban households largely saw slightly increased or stable nutrient consumption between 2010/11 and 2016/17, most households in rural areas saw declines over this period. We also document small shifts in the relative amounts of foods consumed over this six-year period in both rural and urban households, with increased consumption of fish and pulses, legumes, and nuts, and decreases in meat, fruit, dairy, and root and tuber consumption. The contribution of animal-source foods as a share of total protein consumption remains low at between 10 and 20 percent, depending on the region, with the overall share of protein from animal-source foods falling slightly between the two surveys. With regards to adequacy of household diets for meeting nutrient requirements, in the absence of nutrient supplementation, many individuals will be subject to iron, vitamin A, and folate inadequacies. Of particular concern, the poorest households have very low nutrient consumption per person and have diets that rely on only a few foods from a small number of food groups. For all six nutrients, nationally just over half of the total amount of nutrient consumed came from food that was purchased. While we would expect this for urban households, even for rural households more than half of all calories and protein consumed came from foods that were purchased. For micronutrients consumed by rural households, between 40 and 50 percent came from purchased foods. While in the past, own production of food may have provided most Malawian households with most of the nutrients they consumed, this is no longer the case. For most Malawian households, including in rural communities, their food security and dietary nutritional needs now are equally tied to the market as to their own farming, if not more so. Drawing lessons from the analysis here for improving the food consumption data collected in the IHS surveys, more detailed and further disaggregated data would be beneficial, particularly to help estimate nutrients derived from fortified and processed foods. Additional information on how food is shared within households would also allow for a better understanding of nutrient inadequacies at the individual level. Collecting more information on the content of the meals that household members eat away from home would also be helpful in removing some uncertainty in the nutrient consumption estimates made from the data. Finally, additional information on food gifts received could clarify aspects of household coping strategies, the performance of formal social safety nets, and food choice.

During the last decade the food and nutrition situation in developing countries has changed dramatically. For better or worse, urbanization and globalization have altered the diet and nutrition in both rural and urban areas. In many developing countries a persistent level of under nutrition exists both in rural areas and in urban slums due to less access to food needed for an active and healthy life. On the other hand, over-nutrition, or eating too much, has emerged among the middle-income groups. It is essential to have a better understanding of how people deal with their food in developing countries, in order to plan and implement food and nutrition programmes. This manual deals with the process of changing food habits and consumption patterns in developing countries. Nutritional implications, together with practical information is discussed in relationship to conducting field surveys. Part one of the manual provides insight into the dynamics of food habits and consumption and its socio-economic and cultural dimensions. Part two gives practical information on small scale surveys to be carried out within the framework of a nutrition issue; including data collecting on food habits and the measurement of food intake. This manual addresses professionals with practical or academic training and those who are involved in various types of food and nutrition programmes or related activities. It can also be used as a handbook in food and nutrition training courses at higher and at academic level.

Food consumption patterns and practices are rapidly changing in Asia and the Pacific, and nowhere are these changes more striking than in urban areas. This book brings together scholars from anthropology, sociology, environmental studies, tourism, architecture and development studies to provide a comprehensive examination of food consumption trends in the cities of Asia and the Pacific, including household food consumption, eating out and food waste. The chapters cover different scales of analysis, from household research to national data, and combine different methodologies and approaches, from quantifiable data that show how much people consume to qualitative findings that reveal how and why consumption takes place in urban settings. Detailed case studies are included from China, India, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, South Korea and Vietnam, as well as Hawai'i and Australia. The book makes a timely contribution to current debates on the challenges and opportunities for socially just and environmentally sound food consumption in urbanizing Asia and the Pacific. Chapter 3 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 3.0 https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/tandfbis/rt-files/docs/Open+Access+Chapters/9781138120617_oachapter3.pdf

Several changes in the United States over the past two decades have implications for diet, nutrition, and food safety, including patterns of food consumption that have produced an increase in overweight and obese Americans and threats to food safety from pathogens and bioterrorism. The changes raise a number of critical policy and research questions: How do differences in food prices and availability or in households' time resources for shopping and food preparation affect what people consume and where they eat? How do factors outside of the household, such as the availability of stores and restaurants, food preparation technology, and food marketing and labeling policies, affect what people are consuming? What effects have food assistance programs had on the nutritional quality of diets and the health of those served by the programs? Where do people buy and consume food and how does food preparation affect food safety? To address these and related questions, the Economic Research Service (ERS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) asked the Committee on National Statistics to convene a panel of experts to provide advice for improving the data infrastructure on food consumption and nutrition. The panel was charged to review data needs to support research and decision making for food and nutrition policies and programs in USDA and to assess the adequacy of the current data infrastructure and recommend enhancements to improve it. The primary basis for the panel's deliberations, given limited resources, was a workshop on Enhancing the Data Infrastructure in Support of Food and Nutrition Programs, Research, and Decision Making, which the panel convened on May 27-28, 2004. This report is based on the discussions at the workshop and the deliberations of the panel. The report outlines key data that are needed to better address questions related to food consumption, diet, and health; discusses the available data and some limitations of those data; and offers recommendations for improvements in those data. The panel was charged to consider USDA data needs for policy making and the focus of the report is on those needs.

Nutrition in the Prevention and Treatment of Disease, Fourth Edition, is a compilation of current knowledge in clinical nutrition and an overview of the rationale and science base of its application to practice in the prevention and treatment of disease. In its fourth edition, this text continues the tradition of incorporating new discoveries and methods related to this important area of research Generating and analyzing data that summarize dietary intake and its association with disease are valuable tasks in treating disease and developing disease prevention strategies. Well-founded medical nutrition therapies can minimize disease development and related complications. Providing scientifically sound, creative, and effective nutrition interventions is both challenging and rewarding. Two new chapters on metabolomics and translational research, which have come to be used in nutrition research in recent years. The new areas of study are discussed with the perspective that the application of the scientific method is by definition an evolutionary process. A new chapter on Genetics and Diabetes which reviews the latest research on causal genetic variants and biological mechanisms responsible for the disease, and explores potential interactions with environmental factors such as diet and lifestyle. Includes all major "omics" – the exposome, metabolomics, genomics, and the gut microbiome. Expands the microbiota portions to reflect complexity of diet on gut microbial ecology, metabolism and health