Food and nutritional profile of high energy density consumers in an adult Mediterranean population

Objective: To test if an adult Mediterranean population consumes different food volumes while spontaneously ingesting diets of different energy densit y and to estimate which are the food and nutritional profiles of these diet s. Design: A cross-sectional study of food consumption. Setting: Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universitat Rovira i Virg ili, Reus. Subjects: Five hundred and seventy two adult individuals (25-65 y) randomly selected from the population census of Reus. Intervention: 24 hour recall method for 3 non-consecutive days including on e holiday. The population was classified into three groups of differing ene rgy densities by simple linear regression analysis. Means were compared by ANOVA. Results: Both sexes consume similar food volumes across the different level s of energy density. High energy density consumers ingest significantly mor e red meat, olive oil, sweet cereals, cereals and sugars and less reduced f at milk, green vegetables and fruit compared to low energy density consumer s. Male and female high energy density consumers show a significantly highe r consumption of energy (1686kJ and 2200kJ, respectively) (P < 0.001), a 5. 2% (P < 0.001) and 2.3% (P < 0.05) respectively higher energy intake derive d from fat and a 1.3% (P < 0.05) and 1.3% (P < 0.05) respectively higher en ergy intake derived from saturated fatty acids compared to low energy densi ty consumers. Conclusions: Our adult Mediterranean population normally consumes similar f ood volumes, independently of the energy density ingested. High energy dens e diets in our population could represent an important health risk because they are excessively rich in energy, fats and saturated fatty acids.