Abstract

Objectives Food composition tables are essential to estimating nutrient intake. For the Thai diet, food composition tables have been established in Thailand and also by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. However, nutritional evaluations to date have been limited because the number of food items and nutritional components in the tables is restricted. The aim of the present study was to calculate the nutrient intake of young Thais using different food composition tables from Thailand, Japan, and the US and to clarify the influence of these differences on calculated nutrient intake. Methods The study was conducted by the Chiang Mai Rajabhat University in Chiang Mai, Thailand in August of 2013, 2014 and 2015. A total of 297 female students were asked to complete a Self-Administered Food Frequency Questionnaire (SFFQ) asking about the habitual consumption of 80 kinds of listed foods and eight frequency categories within the past one year. Intakes of energy and nutrients were quantified using Japanese Food Composition Tables (J-FCT), USDA Food Composition Tables (U-FCT), and Thai or ASEAN Food Composition Tables (T-FCT). Mean estimated intakes of energy and nutrients were compared and Spearman’s correlation coefficients between the intakes of each nutrient using the different FCTs were calculated. Results Means of almost all nutrients, excluding energy and protein, significantly differed with use of the different FCTs. Fat, vitamin E, and dietary fiber intake were lower when calculated using T-FCT than the other FCTs. Moreover, calcium and iron intake were lower and total energy and carbohydrate intake were higher when calculated using J-FCT than the other FCTs. Never the less, correlation coefficients between nutrients using the different FCTs were significant and more than 0.8 for all nutrients except vitamin E. Conclusion Ranking of participants by estimated nutrient intake did not change no matter which FCT was used. This finding suggests that nutrient composition values from other food composition tables can be substituted for missing values in the primary table.

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