Methodological issues relating to the measurement of food, energy and nutrient intake in human laboratory-based studies

Abstract

The relevance of measuring intake to the nutritional and behavioural sciences Understanding the mechanisms controlling human appetite and energy intake (EI) is fundamental to nutritional science since it is through a balance between EI and energy expenditure (EE) that body weight and composition are maintained and functional integrity is sustained. The recent resurgence of interest in the study of feeding behaviour and the physiological control of food intake (FI) is mainly due to the rapidly increasing proportion of overweight and obese individuals in Western society (White et al. 1991; Department of Health, 1995). It is widely accepted that the uncoupling of EI from EE is largely responsible for these secular trends in body weight. The ability to measure food, energy and nutrient (FEN) intake is critical to our understanding of the processes producing these secular trends. The mechanisms controlling feeding are multifactorial and complex in nature and are generally characterized by an ongoing interaction between physiology and behaviour.