Nutrient intake of working women in Bangkok, Thailand, as studied by totalfood duplicate method

Objectives: To establish a general view of food habits in Thailand, and to make a quantitative assessment of rice dependency of Thai people. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: Community. Subjects: 52 non-smelting and non-habitually drinking adult women in Bangko k participated in the study. Methods: The participants offered 24 h food duplicates and peripheral blood samples, and underwent clinical examination including anthropometry. The d uplicates were subjected to nutritional evaluation taking advantage of the Thai food composition tables (FCTs), and analyzed for eight nutrient elemen ts by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Results: The participants took 1630 kcal from 55 g protein (63% from animal sources), 57 g lipid (mostly from vegetable oil), and 224 g carbohydrate ( 60% from rice) daily. Nutrient intake at lunch was as large as that at dinn er. About a half of the women had insufficient energy intake (ie < 80% RDA) whereas 4% had an excess (> 120%). Protein intake was sufficient in most c ases, whereas lipid intake was in excess in more than a half of the women. Ca, Fe, Mg, Zn and possibly P intakes were below the RDA values in many par ticipants. FCT-based estimates agreed well with the ICP-MS measures in case s of Fe and Ca but tended to be greater than the measures by 50% with regar d to P. Conclusions: Lunch as substantial as dinner for Thai urbanites. There was a marked dependency on rice as an energy source. Whereas protein intake is g enerally sufficient, the intake of Ca land to a lesser extent Fe) was insuf ficient in a majority of the study participants.