Food consumption patterns in the 1960s in seven countries

Abstract

At the end of the 1950s the Seven Countries Study was designed to investigate the relations between diet and cardiovascular diseases. Sixteen cohorts were selected in Finland, Greece, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, United States, and Yugoslavia. During the 1960s food consumption data were collected from random samples of these cohorts by use of the record method. In Finland the intake of milk, potatoes, edible fats, and sugar products was very high. A similar but lower intake pattern was observed in The Netherlands. Fruit, meat, and pastry consumption was high in the United States; cereal and alcoholic drink consumption was high in Italy; and bread consumption high in Yugoslavians except for those in Belgrade. In Greece the intake of olive oil and fruit was high and the Japanese cohorts were characterized by a high consumption of fish, rice, and soy products. These differences in food consumption patterns have lessened during the past 25 y.

Fruit and fish consumption: a possible explanation for population differences in COPD mortality (The Seven Countries Study)

“…The characteristic food consumption patterns of the seven countries changed during 25 years of follow-up, but the relative position of the countries in the distribution of different foods, including fruits and ®sh, was maintained (Kromhout et al, 1989). Therefore, this type of bias is probably small.…”

“…In 1985 and 1986 the original dietary intake data were recoded by one dietitian in a standardised way and summarised in 16 food groups including vegetables, fruits and ®sh (Kromhout et al, 1989). For the present analysis the fruit group was decomposed into solid fruits (apples, pears), citrus fruits and other fruits (soft fruits, conserved fruits, fruit juice).…”

The high-fat Greek diet: a recipe for all?

“…This is not surprising, given the crucial role of weight gain in amplifying the prevalence of hypertension. This and the high prevalence of substantial alcohol intakes in Crete (Kromhout et al, 1989;Keys et al, 1968) seems to explain their high prevalence of hypertension.…”

“…The SFA content of both the Cretan and Corfu diets was in those years well below 10% energy, reflecting the almost exclusive presence of olive oil in these diets. The slightly higher SFA intake in Crete (Table 1) results from an appreciable consumption of milk, probably goat's or sheep's, amounting to about one quarter of a litre per day (Kromhout et al, 1989).…”

“…Ample methodological details were provided , but it still remains unclear whether the Greek survey was one of the 13 out of the 16 base-line surveys conducted within the Seven Countries Study, where the foods were recorded as the edible part of the raw food products, or one of the other three studies where the foods were recorded as consumed (Menotti et al, 1999). Furthermore, detailed information on the individual foods contributing to these diets became available for the first time only about 30 y later when the original survey records were reexamined (Kromhout et al, 1989). Kromhout and colleagues explained that the original Greek records had been lost and the diet had to be reconstructed on the basis of the information provided in the text of the original Keys paper ; some items (fruit and vegetables) were not } } The high-fat Greek diet A Ferro-Luzzi et al mentioned in that paper, so intakes of these items had to be assumed on the basis of food balance sheets.…”