ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors review current methods for assessing the dietary intake of individuals and populations, review the strengths and limitations of these methods, and describe the ways they are used to determine trends in food and nutrient intake. They define trends in dietary patterns as changes in a populations’s food and nutrient intake over time. Such changes are influenced by a great many factors such as food availability, lifestyle, and educational level. Current dietary practices reflect thousands of years of an almost Darwinian process of natural selection: the foods that have survived and are still consumed by modern cultures are those that have been grown successfully and enjoyed throughout history. In order to establish a rational basis for policies to improve the diet and, therefore, the health of the American population, much more basic and applied research is needed to identify food consumption trends.
