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Collection of dietary data
In our studies, we assess the dietary intake of nutrients and energy
by using food records. They are usually collected for four consecutive
days, starting from Sunday. One of our qualified nutritionists gives
instructions needed as well as checks the completed food records with
the study subject. The task of study subjects is to keep an accurate
diary on everything they eat or drink during the follow-up time. The
portions of different foods consumed are evaluated on a basis of a book
with photos of food-portion examples, and marked to the food record
diary by each subject. This book contains 126 example photos of different
portions of various foods and drinks. The sizes of portions are not
marked in the book on gram-basis, but with letters, that the subjects
use for making notes in the food record diary. Below you can see an
example from the food portion photo book.
The use of food portion book aims at recording the data accurately.
If the subjects were making notes on the food portions after weighing
the foods, this might affect the portion size consumed or recorded.
The book has been developed by National Public Health Institute, Helsinki,
Finland (http://www.ktl.fi/nutrition).
If needed, the subjects are also allowed to mark the portions consumed
in grams or generally known dosages (sugar cube etc.). When coding the
food records, nutritionists translate the letters corresponding to different-sized
food portions into grams.
We have collected 4-day food records in almost all of our studies. Most
of these are collected up in the next table.
PDF of the table
NutricaŽ- nutrient calculation software
In our recent studies intakes of nutrients are calculated using
NUTRICA version 2.5 software, which is compiled using mainly Finnish
values of nutrient composition of foods. The software takes into account
food preparation losses of vitamins. More than half of the values are
based on recent data analyzed and published in Finland. Other data sources
include Swedish, Danish, German, English and American food composition
tables. The nutrient compositions of foods in NUTRICA software version
2.5 have been analysed mainly in 1990's and it contains the latest data
of vitamin contents of fruits and vegetables.
NUTRICA contains a comprehensive database over data for 1100 food items
and dishes and 30 nutrients. We have also added food composition data
of 16 nutrients to this software. NUTRICA is developed at the Research
Centre of the Social Insurance Institution of Finland.
Commercial version of NUTRICA software converts amounts of foods reported
to grams and calculates following nutrients and food groups
Nutrients and food groups in PDF
In September 2003 we have calculated 80 different nutrients and
100 different foods from food record data. Currently we are augmenting
the databases of phenolic compounds in order to study the role of these
compounds in CVD, cancer, depression and other diseases. In addition
we are studying the role of the foodstuffs rich in phenolic compounds
such as tea and coffee in these diseases.
Analysis methods for phenolic compounds in foods makes it possible to
produce new data into our database. The analyses of the selected foods
are ongoing and in the future we'll see if that data will provide us
a new point of view to the intake of phenolic compounds.
Nutrica enables us to calculate thousands of food records simultaneously.
It is widely in use in hospital nutritionists and it's also used in
many other Finnish epidemiologic studies or clinical trials like Special
Turku Coronary Risk Factor Intervention Project (STRIP) trial and the
Finnish Twin Cohort. Nutrica has been validated by Hakala
et al (1996).
More information about Nutrica:
Hakala P, Marniemi J, Knuts L-R, Kumpulainen J, Tahvonen R, Plaami
S: Calculated vs. analysed nutrient composition of weight reduction
diets. Food Chem 1996;57:71 75.
Hakala P, Knuts LR, Vuorinen A, Hammar N, Becker W. Comparison of nutrient
intake data calculated on the basis of two different databases. Results
and experiences from a Swedish-Finnish study. Eur J Clin Nutr 2003;57:1035-44.
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