Public Health Nutrition http://journals.cambridge.org/PHN Additional services for Public Health Nutrition: Email alerts: Click here Subscriptions: Click here Commercial reprints: Click here Terms of use : Click here Meeting recommended dietary intakes in meal plans with ≥4 servings of grain-based foods daily Yasmine Probst and Linda Tapsell Public Health Nutrition / FirstView Article / December 2012, pp 1 - 12 DOI: 10.1017/S1368980012004764, Published online: 16 November 2012 Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S1368980012004764 How to cite this article: Yasmine Probst and Linda Tapsell (2012). Meeting recommended dietary intakes in meal plans with ≥4 servings of grain- based foods daily. Public Health Nutrition, null, pp 1-12 doi:10.1017/S1368980012004764 Request Permissions : Click here Downloaded from http://journals.cambridge.org/PHN, IP address: 130.130.37.84 on 11 Dec 2012 Public Health Nutrition: page 1 of 12 doi:10.1017/S1368980012004764 Meeting recommended dietary intakes in meal plans with $4 servings of grain-based foods daily Yasmine Probst* and Linda Tapsell Smart Foods Centre, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia Submitted 18 August 2011: Final revision received 7 February 2012: Accepted 26 August 2012 Abstract Objective: To develop meal plans using grain-based foods demonstrating how to incorporate wholegrain foods into a balanced diet for weight maintenance for different cuisines. The present study examines the ability of meal plans with $4 grain-based servings daily to meet nutrient recommendations using lacto-ovo vegetarian and rice-based cuisines. Design: Eighteen plans from each cuisine for three age brackets for both genders were developed. Plans aimed for $4 servings of grain-based foods daily, with separate plans for all wholegrain, all refined-grain and half wholegrain–half refined-grain foods. Meal plans followed an isoenergetic approach and were designed to meet specific Australian nutrient reference values and serving sizes. Results: All plans met the Recommended Dietary Intake or Adequate Intake for targeted nutrients except for Fe in the rice-based meal plan for females aged $19 years (17 mg). In the plans for 14–18 year and $19 year age groups, four servings of grain-based foods could be accommodated. In the plans for 9–13 years, increasing the number of grain-based food servings to four reduced micronutrients levels delivered by the total diet. Specific food choices were made to ensure nutrient targets were met across each category for wholegrain and refined-grain plans. The major difference in nutrients between wholegrain and refined-grain foods was found in the vegetarian cuisine, where the meal plans containing whole grains produced on average 30 % higher fibre (38–53 g) levels than those with refined grains (27–40 g). Conclusions: With careful food selection, meal plans with $4 servings of grain- based foods daily can meet nutrient reference values for lacto-ovo vegetarian and rice-based cuisines. Keywords Whole grains Dietary modelling Cuisine A significant body of research shows that a higher consumption of whole grains is associated with reduced risk of disease (1–3) . When considering refined grains, however, the strength of these associations is reduced and inconsistent (4,5) . For example, in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study, Steffen et al. found that consumption of refined-grain foods – median intake of two servings of grain-based foods daily – was associated with lower educational attainment, unhealthy behaviours and an unbalanced diet (P , 0?001) (4) . At this level of consumption there was a trend for increased risk of disease compared with those who consumed 0?5 servings daily (P , 0?001). On the other hand, Liu et al. found no evidence for the association between consumption of refined grains and risk of CVD in the Nurses’ Health Study (5) . One of the issues in research on grain-based foods, however, is the classification of wholegrain and refined- grain foods. FFQ may not always differentiate wholegrain food items from refined-grain food items. For example, the term ‘rice’ often includes white rice, brown rice and wild rices; the latter two being whole grains. The amount of a food also needs to be considered to determine this impact on health. Serving sizes for grain- based foods are inconsistent (6,7) . For example in Australia, reference standards for one serving of grain food is equivalent to two slices of bread (8) , while it is equivalent to only one slice of bread in other published material (9) . To add to this problem, the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating (AGHE) (10) defines a sample serving of breads and cereals (including rice, pasta and noodles) as equivalent to 600 kJ or two slices (60 g) of bread. When different types of grain- based foods from different cultural cuisines are considered these serving sizes create further analytical challenges. The term ‘cuisine’ can be described as a set of food- related practices, particularly in relation to a cultural group. This concept covers not only particular types of foods eaten and their characteristic flavours, but also the symbolic and social contexts of eating, processing techniques, as well as the nutritional value of these foods (11) . Public Health Nutrition *Corresponding author: Email yasmine@uow.edu.au r The Authors 2012