Identifying Nutrient Patterns in South African Foods to Support National Nutrition Guidelines and Policies.

ABSTRACT: Food composition databases (FCDBs) provide the nutritional content of foods and are essential for developing nutrition guidance and effective intervention programs to improve nutrition of a population. In public and nutritional health research studies, FCDBs are used in the estimation of nutrient intake profiles at the population levels. However, such studies investigating nutrient co-occurrence and profile patterns within the African context are very rare. This study aimed to identify nutrient co-occurrence patterns within the South African FCDB (SAFCDB). A principal component analysis (PCA) was applied to 28 nutrients and 971 foods in the South African FCDB to determine compositionally similar food items. A second principal component analysis was applied to the food items for validation.

SUBMITTER: Balakrishna Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8465156 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature