R. Hussashmore, ISSUES IN THE MEASUREMENT OF ENERGY-INTAKE FOR FREE-LIVING HUMAN-POPULATIONS, American journal of human biology, 8(2), 1996, pp. 159-167
Energy intake is the most difficult component of energy balance to mea
sure. All known methods are subject to considerable error, both random
error and bias. High variability within and between subjects means th
at sampling is important to increase reliability. Further, the fact th
at true intakes are unknown means that some outside measure of validit
y is desirable as a check on the accuracy of recording of habitual int
ake. This report examines food intake for populations where expenditur
e has been measured by doubly labeled water. For 21 populations where
aggregate data have been reported, intake came within one megajoule (M
J) of expenditure in about one-half of the cases. In seven populations
where individual intake and expenditure were noted, reported intakes
did not differ from measured expenditure for four groups, but differed
significantly for two groups of African farm women and one group of o
bese volunteers. Individuals also differed in ranking of intake and ex
penditure, with intake able to predict the rank of expenditure only fo
r one group of German students. Energy intake data are important for b
oth ecological and epidemiological studies but are poor measures to us
e in estimating energy balance. (C) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.