Patterns of dietary intake from the largest Latin America epidemiological cohort study: findings from the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA-Brasil)
METHODS:
ELSA-Brasil enrolled 15,105 civil servants from 6 institutions located in six Brazilian cities. The baseline questionnaire (2008-2010) included a food-frequency questionnaire with 114 items that were divided into nine food groups (refined/ whole grains; sweets; milk and dairy products; red and processed meat; chicken and fish; beverages; vegetables; fruits; leguminous). Each group was identified as follows: “no consumption”, “weekly” and “daily consumption”. Multiple correspondence analysis was applied, as well as cluster analysis to classify individuals.
RESULTS: Four patterns of dietary intake were identified. The most frequent (48%) was characterized by daily consumption of red meat, beans and sweet and weekly consumption of fruit, vegetables and whole milk- this group was identified as “mixed”. The second group (25%) included daily consumption of fruits and vegetables, grilled chicken, skim milk and no consumption of red meat and beans - “fruits and vegetable group”; the third most frequent (24%), “bakery group” included daily consumption of refined grains, cookies, breads, whole milk and no consumption of fruits and vegetables. The less frequent (5%) group was characterized by the consumption of food diet and light foods and whole grains – “diet/light group”.
CONCLUSIONS:
Our study identified concerning patterns of dietary intake, an understudied topic in Brazil. Its negative effects seem to be already in place - Brazil is struggling with high rates of obesity, hypertension, and diabetes. It is urgent to develop an array of large-scale programmatic and policy measures to prevent the serious dietary challenges being faced.