Abstract
Objective: The present research is to assess the rice consumption pattern and its association with selected measures of diet, health, and nutritional status in the US child and adolescent population.
Methods: Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2007-2008 and Food Commodity Intake Database were analyzed to assess the association between rice consumption and selected markers of nutritional status. This study included 1706 participants who completed the first day of the 24-hour dietary recall, which consisted of 830 children aged 9 to 13 years and 876 adolescents aged 14 to 19 years. All analyses were weighted according to the complex sample design provided by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. High-rice consumers were defined as participants who consumed equal to or more than the equivalent of 14.1 g of raw rice. Low-rice consumers were defined as participants who consumed more than 0.1 g and less than 14.1 g of rice. Nonrice consumers were defined as participants who consumed between 0 and 0.1 g of rice.
Results: Most children and adolescents in America did not consume rice as part of their regular diet. Among all ethnicities, non-Hispanic white and Asian/mixed racial children and adolescents were more likely to be rice consumers. High-rice and low-rice consumers had a significant higher calorie intake; however, they consumed less fat and saturated fat from diet. High-rice consumers also had significantly higher micronutrient intake such as higher folate, iron, vitamin B6, thiamin, niacin, vitamin C, magnesium, and copper.
Conclusions: The findings suggest that rice consumers have a higher quality of diet. However, we cannot infer a causal relationship between rice consumption and its effect from this cross-sectional study.