Abstract

VILELA, Sofia  and  LOPES, Carla. Different approaches to define eating occasions and its associations with weight status. Acta Port Nutr [online]. 2019, n.18, pp.44-48. ISSN 2183-5985.  https://doi.org/10.21011/apn.2019.1808.

A more holistic approach has been encouraged to explore complex issues, such as nutrition-related health outcomes, before addressing any specific question to explain the whole. The analysis at the meal pattern level allows assessing the combined effect of food compounds synergy and to be translated into meaningful results, such as dietary guidelines. This review describes different approaches to define eating occasions and previous evidence on the association between meal patterns and weight status. A variety of definitions of an eating occasion has been used in previous research, including ´time-of-day’, ‘participant-identification’, ‘food-based classification’, and ‘neutral’. Moreover, to optimize the differentiation between a main meal and a snack more than one criterion should be used. The inconsistency in definitions of eating occasions might impact the associations with health outcomes, namely body weight, and hamper data interpretation and comparison between studies.

Keywords : Eating frequency; Holistic approach; Meal patterns; Obesity.

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