29
views
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
0 collections
    0
    shares
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: found
      Is Open Access

      Nutritional content of supermarket ready meals and recipes by television chefs in the United Kingdom: cross sectional study

      research-article
        1 , , 2 , 2
      BMJ : British Medical Journal
      BMJ Publishing Group Ltd.

      Read this article at

      Bookmark
          There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

          Abstract

          Objectives To compare the energy and macronutrient content of main meals created by television chefs with ready meals sold by supermarkets, and to compare both with nutritional guidelines published by the World Health Organization and UK Food Standards Agency.

          Design Cross sectional study.

          Setting Three supermarkets with the largest share of the grocery market in the United Kingdom, 2010.

          Samples 100 main meal recipes from five bestselling cookery books by UK television chefs and 100 own brand ready meals from the three leading UK supermarkets.

          Main outcome measures Number of meals for which the nutritional content complied with WHO recommendations, and the proportion of nutrients classified as red, amber, or green using the UK FSA’s “traffic light” system for labelling food.

          Results No recipe or ready meal fully complied with the WHO recommendations. The ready meals were more likely to comply with the recommended proportions of energy derived from carbohydrate (18% v 6%, P=0.01) and sugars (83% v 81%, P=0.05) and fibre density (56% v 14% P<0.01). The recipes were more likely to comply with the recommended sodium density (36% v 4%, P<0.01), although salt used for seasoning was not assessed. The distributions of traffic light colours under the FSA’s food labelling recommendations differed: the modal traffic light was red for the recipes (47%) and green for ready meals (42%). Overall, the recipes contained significantly more energy (2530 kJ v 2067 kJ), protein (37.5 g v 27.9 g), fat (27.1 g v 17.2 g), and saturated fat (9.2 g v 6.8 g; P<0.01 for all) and significantly less fibre (3.3 g v 6.5 g, P<0.01) per portion than the ready meals.

          Conclusions Neither recipes created by television chefs nor ready meals sold by three of the leading UK supermarkets complied with WHO recommendations. Recipes were less healthy than ready meals, containing significantly more energy, protein, fat, and saturated fat, and less fibre per portion than the ready meals.

          Related collections

          Most cited references6

          • Record: found
          • Abstract: found
          • Article: not found

          Nutritional content of foods advertised during the television programs children watch most.

          We sought to code food (nutritional content and food type and eating occasion) and character (cartoon and live action) attributes of food advertisements airing during television programs heavily viewed by children, and to represent and evaluate the nutritional content of advertised foods in terms of the nutrition facts label. Food advertisements (n=426) aimed at general and child audiences were coded for food and character attributes. "Nutrition Facts" label data for advertised foods (n=275) were then analyzed. Convenience/fast foods and sweets comprised 83% of advertised foods. Snacktime eating was depicted more often than breakfast, lunch, and dinner combined. Apparent character body size was unrelated to eating behavior. A 2000-calorie diet of foods in the general-audience advertisements would exceed recommended daily values (RDVs) of total fat, saturated fat, and sodium. A similar diet of foods in the child-audience advertisements would exceed the sodium RDV and provide 171 g (nearly 1 cup) of added sugar. Snack, convenience, and fast foods and sweets continue to dominate food advertisements viewed by children. Advertised foods exceed RDVs of fat, saturated fat, and sodium, yet fail to provide RDVs of fiber and certain vitamins and minerals.
            Bookmark
            • Record: found
            • Abstract: found
            • Article: not found

            Convenience foods in children's diet and association with dietary quality and body weight status.

            Pre-prepared commercial foods (convenience foods, CFs) are one aspect of modern dietary habits. The present paper examines the association between CF consumption and dietary quality or body weight status in a sample of German children and adolescents. Linear mixed-effect regression analyses using data from 586 participants (296 boys, 3-18 years) in the Dortmund Nutritional Anthropometric Longitudinally Designed Study, who yearly completed 1890 3-day dietary records and anthropometric measurements in 2004-2008, was used. CF intake (percent total food intake) showed no significant association with macronutrient intakes (%E), with exception of a significant positive association with polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) intake (P<0.0001). Considering only high-energy-dense (ED)-CF (40% of the CF intake), there was a significant negative association with total protein, carbohydrate and saturated fatty acid intake (%E) (P<0.05), and a positive with total fat and PUFA (P<0.01). The nutrient quality index (harmonic mean of 10 vitamins and minerals as the percentage of the reference intakes) showed a significant negative trend with increased consumption of CF (P=0.0013). No significant association between baseline or change in consumption of CF and baseline or change in parameters of body weight (standard deviation score of body mass index (weight/height(2)) or percentage body fat (%BF) estimated from skinfolds) was found. Among boys, baseline consumption of high-ED-CF significantly predicted change in %BF during the study period (β 0.104, P=0.0098). Our results point to an impairment of dietary quality with high consumption of CF and to a small but positive association between consumption of high-ED-CF in boys and weight.
              Bookmark
              • Record: found
              • Abstract: found
              • Article: not found

              Socio-economic and gender differences in nutritional content of foods advertised in popular UK weekly magazines.

              Advertising in magazines contributes to nutritional knowledge and social norms and may play a role in food choice and adiposity. In contrast to food advertising on television, that in magazines has received little research attention. We describe the type and nutritional content of foods advertised in popular UK weekly magazines and explore variations in these according to the socio-economic and gender profile of readers. Four consecutive issues of 30 popular UK weekly magazines were obtained. Food advertisements were categorized into one of eight food groups. Manufacturer's data on the nutritional content of advertised foods was used to determine the nutritional content of advertised foods. Socio-economic and gender profile of magazines was determined from national readership statistics. Four hundred forty three advertisements for food products were identified. The most common categories of foods advertised were meals, combination foods, soups and sauces (26%) and foods containing fat/sugar (23%). Advertised foods had a lower percentage of energy from carbohydrate (43%), lower fibre density (2 g/MJ), but higher percentage of energy from sugars (24%) and higher sodium density (0.5 g/MJ) than a diet recommended to avoid diet-related disease. There were variations in the type of foods advertised according to the socio-economic profile of readers and in the nutritional content of advertised foods according to the socio-economic and gender profile of readers. Food advertising reflects, and may reinforce, socio-economic and gender variations in food choice and adiposity. Producers of more healthy food may need help from policy makers and health promoters to effectively market their products.
                Bookmark

                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Role: specialty registrar in public health
                Role: senior lecturer in public health
                Role: professor of public health
                Journal
                BMJ
                BMJ
                bmj
                BMJ : British Medical Journal
                BMJ Publishing Group Ltd.
                0959-8138
                1756-1833
                2012
                2012
                17 December 2012
                : 345
                : e7607
                Affiliations
                [1 ]NHS Tees, Stockton on Tees TS17 6SG, UK
                [2 ]Fuse, UKCRC Centre for Translational Research in Public Health, Institute of Health and Society, Newcastle University, UK
                Author notes
                Correspondence to: S Howard simonhoward@ 123456nhs.net
                Article
                hows006294
                10.1136/bmj.e7607
                3524368
                23247976
                359fdd6c-48d0-46bb-9e2e-8f395491557f
                © Howard et al 2012

                This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial License, which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non commercial and is otherwise in compliance with the license. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/ and http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/legalcode.

                History
                : 31 October 2012
                Categories
                Research
                1778
                Christmas 2012: Research

                Medicine
                Medicine

                Comments

                Comment on this article