URBAN-RURAL COMPARISON OF NUTRIENT INTAKE BY ADULT WOMEN IN SHANDONG PROVINCE, CHINA

In 1996, 24-hour food duplicate samples mere collected from two groups of 50 nonsmoking women each; one group was in Jinan, the capital city for of Shandong Province in China, and the other in a farming village in Zhangqiu area some 30 km away from the city. They had also physica l examinations including hematology and serum biochemistry tests. Nutr itional analysis of the duplicate samples were conducted utilizing sta ndard food composition tables for Chinese populations. The urban-rural comparison between the two groups showed that women in Zhangqiu took significantly less lipid (54 g/day) and more carbohydrate (335 g/day) than Jinan counterparts (76 g lipid and 254 g carbohydrate/day), altho ugh there was no significant difference in total energy and protein in take (1968 kcal/day in Jinan vs. 2071 kcal/day in Zhangqiu, and 67 g p rotein/day in Jinan vs. 61 g/day in Zhangqiu). The intakes of the thre e major nutrients were sufficient in majorities of members in both gro ups. Iron intake was also sufficient (22 and 25 mg/day in Jinan and Zh angqiu, respectively), but intake of calcium was insufficient in more than a half of the subjects in both groups. Zhangqiu women heavily dep ended on plant-based foods both for protein and lipid, whereas the dep endency was less remarkable among Jinan women. (C) 1997 Tohoku Univers ity Medical Press.