Food Patterns Equivalents Database 2017-2018: Methodology and User Guide

Authors: Bowman, Shanthy; Clemens, John; Friday, James; Moshfegh, Alanna

Submitted to: Worldwide Web Site: Food Surveys Research Group
Publication Type: Research Technical Update
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/26/2020
Publication Date: 10/28/2020
Citation: Bowman, S.A., Clemens, J.C., Friday, J.E., Moshfegh, A.J. 2020. Food Patterns Equivalents Database 2017-2018: Methodology and User Guide. Worldwide Web Site: Food Surveys Research Group. Available: https://www.ars.usda.gov/nea/bhnrc/fsrg/fped.

Interpretive Summary: The 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) provide recommendations on how much to eat from each of the USDA Food Patterns (FP) components such as Fruit, Vegetables, Grains, Dairy, Protein Foods, and Oils, and place limits on the consumption of Alcoholic Drinks, Added Sugars, and Solid Fats. To evaluate how well Americans adhere to the DGA recommendations, it is necessary to convert the foods reported in the What We Eat in America, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (WWEIA, NHANES) 2017-2018, to appropriate FP components. The Food Patterns Equivalents Database (FPED) 2017-2018 has been developed to serve this purpose. The FPED contains the 7,083 foods and beverages in the Food and Nutrients Database for Dietary Studies (FNDDS) 2017-2018 used in the WWEIA, NHANES 2017-2018. The FPED 2017-2018 database converts these foods to the respective number of cup equivalents of Fruit, Vegetables, and Dairy; ounce equivalents of Grains and Protein Foods; number of alcoholic drinks for Alcoholic Beverages; teaspoon equivalents of Added Sugars; and gram equivalents of Solid Fats and Oils. The FNDDS 2017-2018 foods and beverages are composed of various combinations of about 2,322 unique ingredients. The Food Patterns Equivalents Ingredients Database (FPID) 2017-2018 has been created for these unique ingredients. The Methodology and User Guide describes the FPED developmental process in detail with algorithms and many computational examples. In addition to FPED and FPID, the release includes the 37 FP components reported consumed by each respondent on days 1 and 2 of WWEIA, NHANES 2017-2018, and a SAS codes file for the estimation of mean intakes of FP components on day 1 by demographic group. The FPED and FPID have the potential to link nutrition, agriculture, and food economics and are useful to researchers, nutritionists, nutrition educators, economists, food growers, food producers, and policymakers.

Technical Abstract: The purpose of developing the Food Patterns Equivalents Database (FPED) 2017-2018 is to convert the 7,083 foods in the Food and Nutrients Database for Dietary Studies (FNDDS) 2017-2018 used for the What We Eat in America, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (WWEIA, NHANES) 2017-2018 to the 37 USDA Food Patterns (FP) components. The FNDDS 2017-2018 foods are composed of various combinations of about 2,322 unique ingredients, and a Food Patterns Equivalents Ingredients Database (FPID) has been created for these ingredients. The main FP components include: Fruit, Vegetables, Grains, Dairy, Protein Foods, Added Sugars, Oils, Solid Fats, and Alcoholic Drinks. Many of the main FP components are further subdivided, so as to increase the application of FPED and to facilitate detailed data analyses. In FPED, Fruit, Vegetables, and Dairy are expressed in cup equivalents; Grains and Protein Foods in ounce equivalents; Alcoholic Drinks in number of drinks; Added Sugars in teaspoon equivalents; and Oils and Solid Fats in gram equivalents. FNDDS 2017-2018 foods and beverages are disaggregated to ingredients that can be directly assigned to one of the Food Patterns. The FP components are then computed for the ingredients. The amount of each of the 37 FP components present per 100 grams of each FNDDS food are computed by adding the FP components present in its ingredients. The FPED 2017-2018 release includes the following 11 files: (1) Methodology and User Guide describing the guiding principles and process of FPED development with algorithms and computational examples; (2) FPED containing 37 FP components per 100 grams of each of the FNDDS 2017-2018 foods, in Microsoft Access, Microsoft Excel, and SAS (3 data files); (3) FPID containing 37 FP components per 100 grams of the FNDDS unique ingredients, in Microsoft Access, Microsoft Excel, and SAS (3 data files); and (4) the amount of each of the 37 FP components reported consumed by each survey respondent on days 1 and 2 of WWEIA, NHANES 2017-2018 (4 SAS data sets).