Is Energy Expenditure or Physical Activity Considered When Energy Intake Is Measured? A Scoping Review 1975–2015

Abstract

The health-transitions humans have delivered during the 20th Century associated with the nutrition is that from undernutrition to obesity, which perseveres in the current years of the 21st Century. Energy intake (EI) is a contributing factor and therefore a fascination in nutritional sciences. However, energy expenditure (EE) has not been usually considered as a conjoint factor. Thus, this study aimed to review if studies on adults consider data on dietary intake, specifically EI, and included data on EE and physical activity (PA). A search of MEDLINE from 1975 to December 2015 was managed. Our scoping review consisted of keywords related to EI, dietary allowances, and nutritional requirements. From 2229 acknowledged articles, 698 articles were finally taken fulfilling inclusion and quality criteria. A total of 2,081,824 adults (53.7% females) were involved, and most studies had been conducted in EEUU (241), Canada (42), Australia (30), Japan (32), and Brazil (14). In Europe, apart from UK (64), the Netherlands (31) and France (26) led the classification, followed by Sweden (18), Denmark (17), and France (26). Mediterranean countries are represented with 27 studies. A total of 76.4% did not include EE and 93.1% did not include PA. Only 23.6% of the studies contained both EI and EE. A large methodological diversity was perceived, with more than 14 different methods regarding EI, and more than 10 for EE. PA was only analyzed in scarce articles, and scarcely considered for interpretation of data and conclusions. Moreover, PA was often measured by subjective questionnaires. Dietary surveys show a large diversity regarding methodology, which makes comparability of studies difficult. EE and PA are missing in around 80% of studies or are not included in the interpretation of results. Conclusions regarding EI or diet adequacy in adults should not be taken without analyzing EE and PA.

Informing State-Wide Coalition Efforts to Implement and Integrate Nutrition Best Practices in Early Care and Education: Focus Group Insights from Child Care Providers

“…However, a limitation is that this paper focuses only on nutrition best practices in response to the focus of this special issue on the nutritional contributions to health outcomes in early childhood. We encourage future research to consider multiple contributors to health outcomes beyond nutrition such as physical activity [ 82 ].…”

Investigating the Association between Unhealthy Dietary Habits and Obesity among Libyan Adults

“…As a result, obesity has imposed a substantial economic burden on the Libyan state as a whole, which was estimated to be 65% of the Libyan state health budget [4,5,11]. When considering factors that may contribute to or protect against obesity, it is important to consider both sides of the energy-balance equation: on the one hand, the factors related to energy intake (involving food consumption and beverage intake) and, on the other hand, the factors related to energy expenditure (involving physical activity and sedentary lifestyle) [12,13]. It has been suggested that the more risk factors an individual has, the greater the chance of that person developing obesity and dying from it [14].…”