Nutrient intake of working women in Bangkok, Thailand, as studied by total food duplicate method

To establish a general view of food habits in Thailand, and to make a quantitative assessment of rice dependency of Thai people.

Cross-sectional study.

Community.

52 non-smoking and non-habitually drinking adult women in Bangkok participated in the study.

The participants offered 24 h food duplicates and peripheral blood samples, and underwent clinical examination including anthropometry. The duplicates were subjected to nutritional evaluation taking advantage of the Thai food composition tables (FCTs), and analyzed for eight nutrient elements by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS).

The participants took 1630 kcal from 55 g protein (63% from animal sources), 57 g lipid (mostly from vegetable oil), and 224 g carbohydrate (60% from rice) daily. Nutrient intake at lunch was as large as that at dinner. About a half of the women had insufficient energy intake (ie <80% RDA) whereas 4% had an excess (>120%). Protein intake was sufficient in most cases, whereas lipid intake was in excess in more than a half of the women. Ca, Fe, Mg, Zn and possibly P intakes were below the RDA values in many participants. FCT-based estimates agreed well with the ICP-MS measures in cases of Fe and Ca but tended to be greater than the measures by 50% with regard to P.

Lunch as substantial as dinner for Thai urbanites. There was a marked dependency on rice as an energy source. Whereas protein intake is generally sufficient, the intake of Ca (and to a lesser extent Fe) was insufficient in a majority of the study participants.

Dai-ichi Mutual Life Insurance, Japan; the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the government of Japan.