A recent study soon to be presented on the American Heart Association (AHA) Scientific Sessions 2022*, researchers evaluated the dietary patterns of adults searching for weight reduction and residing within the greater Pittsburgh city of Pennsylvania.

Study: Study finds dieters may overestimate the healthiness of their eating habits. Image Credit: Evan Lorne/Shutterstock

Background

A big proportion of United States (US) adults try to scale back their body weight every 12 months, with attempts to extend the consumption of salads, fruits, and vegetables. Healthy dietary patterns are critical for general and cardiovascular health and to enhance survival.

Diet advice from the AHA (American Heart Association) published within the 12 months 2021 included the next advice: eat various vegetables and fruits; whole grains as an alternative of refined grains; go for healthy sources of proteins; replace full-fat milk products with low-fat and non-fat versions; prefer meat with lean cuts (for meat eaters); replace animal fat and tropical oils by liquid-form plant oils; go for minimally processed foods somewhat than ultra-processed ones; eat a minimal amount of sugar-containing food and beverages; eat foods with no or little added salt and avoid or restrict alcohol consumption.

Concerning the study

In the current study, researchers assessed the dietary intake of adult weight loss-seeking Pittsburgh residents.

The study comprised 116 individuals aged between 35 and 58 years who met dieticians individually to debate their diets, following which they tracked all solid and liquid food items consumed every day for a 12 months using the Fitbit application. As well as, they weighed themselves every day and tracked their PA (physical activity) levels using wearable Fitbit devices.

For all participants, HEI (healthy eating index) scores were calculated on the commencement and termination of the evaluation on the idea of the self-reported food items consumed to evaluate the alignment of their dietary patterns with the Dietary Guidelines for American individuals published by the US government. Higher HEI scores denoted healthier dietary habits.

Twenty-four-hour food record data of all individuals for 2 days at every time interval were analyzed. Diet qualities on the commencement and termination of the evaluation were self-scored by the participants. The differences between the starting and terminal scores were considered the perceived dietary change. A ≤6.0-point difference between the HEI scores calculated by the researchers and the perceived scores determined by the participants was considered to be in good agreement.

Results

The common age of the study participants was 52 years, and most participants (79%) were women and Whites (84%). Participants who were changing their dietary habits for weight reduction showed an inclination to overestimate the healthiness of their diets. Moreover, self-perceptions of dietary improvements over 12 months were often inaccurate for the reason that perceived scores didn’t match the HEI scores concerning improvements in weight loss plan quality. On the termination of the evaluation, the HEI scores and self-perceived scores of 25% (one out of 4) of study participants were in good agreement (rating differences ranging between -45 points and 30 points).

The mean values for the perceived scores and HEI scores were 68 and 56, respectively. In judging dietary rating changes over one 12 months, a very good agreement was observed for less than 10% (n=1) of the study participants between the changes within the self-perceived scores in comparison with that within the HEI scores. On the termination of the evaluation, the HEI scores showed a one-point improvement within the weight loss plan quality of the individuals, whereas the participants perceived that weight loss plan quality improved by 18 points.

The study creator, Jessica Cheng, Ph.D., a postdoctoral research fellow usually internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and in epidemiology on the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston said, “We found that while people generally know that vegatables and fruits are healthy, there could also be a disconnect between what researchers and health care professionals consider to be a healthy and balanced weight loss plan in comparison with what the general public thinks is a healthy and balanced weight loss plan.”

Conclusions

Overall, the study findings showed that weight loss-seeking adult Pittsburgh residents overestimated the healthiness of their dietary patterns. In keeping with Deepika Laddu, Ph.D., Assistant professor on the University of Illinois’s College of Applied Health Sciences, Chicago, and chair of AHA’s Lifestyle Behavioral Change for Improving Health Aspects Council, an overestimation of the healthiness of dietary intake as perceived by individuals may result in increased body weight, frustration on account of the shortcoming to satisfy personal weight reduction goals and make individuals less more likely to adopt healthy dietary habits.

Future studies with equal sex and ethnicity representation must concentrate on dietary perceptions versus reality to enhance dietary patterns. The findings underpin the necessity for more frequent counseling interventions by HCPs akin to health coaches, nutritionists, and dieticians to handle the gaps between perceptions and objectively measured dietary improvements and strengthen long-term healthy eating habits.  

*Essential notice

Statements and conclusions of studies which are presented on the American Heart Association’s scientific meetings are solely those of the study authors and don’t necessarily reflect the Association’s policy or position. The Association makes no representation or guarantee as to their accuracy or reliability. Abstracts presented on the Association’s scientific meetings aren’t peer-reviewed, somewhat, they’re curated by independent review panels and are considered based on the potential so as to add to the range of scientific issues and views discussed on the meeting. The findings are considered preliminary until published as a full manuscript in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.