Utilizing Dietary Nutrient Ratios in Nutritional Research: Expanding the Concept of Nutrient Ratios to Macronutrients

Abstract

We recently showed that using micronutrient ratios in nutritional research might provide more insights into how diet affects metabolism and health outcomes, based on the notion that nutrients, unlike drugs, are not consumed one at a time and do not target a single metabolic pathway. In this paper, we present a concept of macronutrient ratios, including intra- and inter-macronutrient ratios. Macronutrient intakes from food only, from the What We Eat in America website (summarized National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data) were transposed into Microsoft Excel to generate ratios. Overall, the dietary ratios of macronutrients may be more revealing and useful in epidemiology and in basic nutritional research than focusing on individual protein, fat, and carbohydrate intakes. While macronutrient ratios may be applied to all types of nutritional research, nutritional epidemiology, and, ultimately, dietary guidelines, the methodology required has not been established yet. In the meantime, intra- and inter-macronutrient ratios may serve as a measure of individual and total macronutrient quality.

Osteosarcopenic Obesity: Current Knowledge, Revised Identification Criteria and Treatment Principles

“…Guidelines for the management of OSO are now available [3,19,59,60,130,131,132]. One of our focus areas over the last five years was on the nutritional aspects related to OSO [3,60,131,132,133,134]. Our intention here is to compile and create preliminary treatment principles for the management of OSO.…”

“…Insufficiencies in calcium; magnesium; potassium; vitamins B 6 , B 12 , A, D, E and K; and folate, as well as excesses of sodium, phosphorus and most B vitamins (with regard to the Dietary Reference Intakes) may be contributing to OSO [131]. However, a more recent concept of nutrient ratios may better to help explain how the overall nutrient insufficiencies and excesses contribute to OSO and overall health [133,134].…”

Elemental Composition and Some Nutritional Parameters of Sweet Pepper from Organic and Conventional Agriculture

“…One may argue that the search of ideal elemental ratios is not worthwhile because there is a difference between the dietary ratio and the blood (or serum) ratio, the latter more relevant in health and disease [40]. However, the load of a particular element in a certain foodstuff may well give us an indication of balance/imbalances, without losing the focus on the interactions and bioavailability and as recently referred, the utilization of dietary micronutrient ratios in nutritional studies might well be more informative than focusing on a single nutrient [41,42].…”

Korean Maize Hybrids Present Significant Diversity in Fatty Acid Composition: An Investigation to Identify PUFA-Rich Hybrids for a Healthy Diet

“…No precise recommendations are existing for the ideal ratio of dietary PUFAs and MUFAs over SFAs. However, based on the recommended unsaturated fatty acids (UFAs: PUFAs + MUFAs) and SFAs daily intakes, MUFAs/SFAs ratio of ∼1, PUFAs/MUFAs ratio of ∼2, and PUFAs + MUFAs/SFAs ratio of 1.6-2 are considered good (13,23). Based on the fatty acid profile ( Table 1), it can be concluded that Korean maize hybrid Ahndaok (No.…”