The parental reports of children's food habits pointed at favourable eating patterns for most investigated children. Breakfast skipping, diet soft drinks and low-fat milk consumption were more frequent among OW/OB children. Longitudinal studies are needed to determine the causal relationships.

This scoping review focuses on the assessment of commensality in research and attempts to identify used methods for performing research on commensality. It reflects a multidisciplinary research field and draws on findings from Web of Science Core Collection, up to April 2019. The empirical material consisted of 61 studies, whereof most were qualitative research, and some were of quantitative character, including very few dietary surveys. The findings show nine papers categorized as using quantitative approaches, 52 papers were categorized as qualitative. The results show a wide variety of different ways to try to find and understand how commensality can be understood and identified. There seems to be a shift in the very concept of commensality as well as some variations around the concept. This paper argues the need to further investigate the importance of commensality for health and wellbeing, as well as the need to gather data on health and health-related behaviors, living conditions and sociodemographic data in parallel. The review shows the broad-ranging areas where commensality is researched, from cultural and historical areas to ethnographic or anthropological areas over to dietary assessment. To complement large dietary surveys with methods of assessing who you are eating with in what environment should be a simple way to further our knowledge on the circumstances of meal intake and the importance of commensality. To add 24-h dietary recall to any study of commensality is another way of identifying the importance of commensality for dietary quality. The use of mixed methods research was encouraged by several authors as a good way forward in the assessment of commensality and its importance.

Introduction: Folate plays an important role in cell metabolism, but international studies show that intake is currently below recommendations, especially among women. The study objective was to identify folate food sources by food group, gender, and age group, and to identify factors influencing folate intake, based on food consumption data for Swedish adults in the 2010–11 Riksmaten study.Methods: The sample included a representative Swedish population aged 18–80 years (n = 1657; 56.3% female). Food and nutrient intakes were estimated from self-reported food records during 4 consecutive days. Food consumption was categorized into 26 food groups. Stepwise regression was used to analyze food groups as folate sources for participants. Factors predicting the highest folate intake (third tertile) were determined by logistic regression analysis.Results: Vegetables and pulses represented the most important folate source for all age groups and both genders, especially in women aged 45–64 years (49.7% of total folate intake). The next folate source in importance was dairy products for the youngest group (18–30 years), bread for men, and fruit and berries for women. The likelihood of being in the highest tertile of folate intake (odds ratio = 1.69, 95% confidence interval 1.354–2.104) was higher for men. Influencing factors for folate intake in the highest tertile were low body mass index and high educational level in the men, and high educational level, vegetarian diet, organic product consumption, non-smoking, and alcohol consumption within recommendations in the women.Conclusion: This study describes the folate intake per food group of Swedish adults according to the 2010–11 Riksmaten survey, identifying vegetables and pulses as the most important source. Data obtained on factors related to folate consumption may be useful for the development of specific nutrition education programs to increase the intake of this vitamin in high-risk groups.

Commensal meals seem to be related to a better nutritional and metabolic health as well as an improved quality of life. The aim of this paper was to examine to what extent research was performed using the search term commensality related to assessment of timing of meals. A scoping review was performed, where 10 papers were identified as specifically addressing the assessment of timing of commensality of meals. Time use studies, questionnaires, and telephone- and person-to-person interviews were used for assessing meal times in relation to commensality. Four of the studies used a method of time use registration, and six papers used interviews or questionnaires. Common meals with family members were the most common, and dinners late at night were often preferred for commensal activities among the working population. In conclusion, the family meal seemed to be the most important commensal meal. It is clear from the collected papers and from previous systematic reviews that more studies of commensal meals in general and about timing aspects in particular and in relation to nutritional health are essential to provide a solid background of knowledge regarding the importance of timing in relation to commensal meals.

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