Dietary Fat Intake and Contributing Food Sources of New Zealand Adolescents: Summarising a Decade

Abstract

Background: Dietary fat is an essential macronutrient to support rapid growth and development during adolescence, in addition to maintaining numerous metabolic and physiological roles. However, adolescents are vulnerable to the development of poor dietary habits, typified by higher than recommended intakes of total and saturated fat, which may put them at increased risk of developing chronic diseases later in life. Up to date figures are unavailable due to it being a decade since any national nutrition data was collected among this population. Objective: To investigate dietary fat intake and contributing food sources of fat among male and female adolescents 15-18 years in New Zealand, comparing intakes between the sexes and against current recommendations to highlight any changes over the past decade and identify areas of concern. Design: The SuNDiAL (Survey of Nutrition Dietary Assessment and Lifestyle) study is a cross- sectional, multi-centre survey of 266 adolescent females and 135 males 15-18 years of age in New Zealand. Female participants in the study were enrolled between February and September 2019 while males were enrolled between February and April 2020. Self-administered questionnaires were used for the collection of demographic information as well as health and vegetarian status. Two non-consecutive 24-hour recalls were used to assess dietary intake and the Multiple Source Method (MSM) was used to adjust for usual intake. Dietary intake data was collated and analysed using the FoodWorks nutrient database. Anthropometric measures (weight and height) were taken during on-site visits to participating schools. Results: Estimated mean intakes of total fat as a percentage of total energy in this study exceeded recommendations for both sexes (males: 37.5% (36.5-38.4); females: 36.5% (35.8-37.2)). Saturated Fatty Acid (SFA) intakes were also higher than recommended, with approximately 90% of the population not meeting the current Acceptable Macronutrient Distribution Range (AMDR). Although improvement for polyunsaturated fat (PUFA) intakes were seen when compared to the Adult Nutrition Survey 2008/09 (ANS 08/09), intakes remain low (males: 5.6% (5.2-6.0); females: 5.5% (5.3-5.7). The major food groups of saturated fat for males included poultry, milk and cheese while for females they were cheese, bread-based dishes and biscuits. Primary food sources of polyunsaturated fat were poultry, nuts/seeds and grains/pasta for males, and nuts/seeds, bread and potatoes/kumara/taro for females. Conclusion: While some positive differences were observed in fat intakes among New Zealand adolescents since the last national survey, overall levels are suboptimal and could be improved by reducing saturated fat and increasing polyunsaturated fat intake. Further research is required to evaluate fat intakes within a nationally representative sample and determine if trends seen in this study are characteristic of intakes across the whole population.