Liu Qingzhou, Allman-Farinelli Margaret, Rangan Anna
School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia.
Charles Perkins Centre, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia.
Eur J Clin Nutr. 2025 May;79(5):419-426. doi: 10.1038/s41430-025-01569-2. Epub 2025 Jan 21.
There are limited data on the amount of discretionary foods that people normally consume and consider as appropriate at one eating occasion. This study aimed to provide an overview of the range and assess differences of the 'normal portion size' and 'perceived appropriate portion size' of energy-dense nutrient-poor discretionary foods among consumers aged 18-65 years.
To measure normal and perceived appropriate portion sizes, a validated online image-series questionnaire consisting of eight successive portion size options for 15 discretionary foods was completed at two timepoints. Quantile regression models were used to estimate the ranges (lower boundary at 17 percentile, upper boundary at 83 percentile) of normal and perceived appropriate portion sizes selected by two thirds of the study population. Models were adjusted for the effects of potential influencing factors including biological sex, age, usual physical activity level, cooking confidence, socio-economic status, body mass index, and baseline hunger levels.
A final sample of 295 participants were included in the analysis (51% females, mean age 39.5 ± 14.1 years). The normal portion sizes were significantly higher than the perceived appropriate portion sizes across all test foods, with the effects of sex, age, and BMI being significant for some foods.
The finding suggests that consumers would normally consume a portion size that was larger than what they perceive to be appropriate for discretionary foods. The estimated lower and upper boundaries would be valuable for the development of pragmatic public health messages to empower consumers towards better portion control.
关于人们在一次用餐时通常食用并认为合适的随意性食物量的数据有限。本研究旨在概述18至65岁消费者中能量密集型营养匮乏的随意性食物的“正常份量”和“感知合适份量”的范围，并评估其差异。
为了测量正常和感知合适的份量，在两个时间点完成了一份经过验证的在线图像系列问卷，该问卷包含15种随意性食物的八个连续份量选项。使用分位数回归模型来估计三分之二的研究人群选择的正常和感知合适份量的范围（第17百分位数为下限，第83百分位数为上限）。模型针对潜在影响因素的影响进行了调整，这些因素包括生物性别、年龄、通常的身体活动水平、烹饪信心、社会经济地位、体重指数和基线饥饿水平。
最终有295名参与者纳入分析（51%为女性，平均年龄39.5±14.1岁）。在所有测试食物中，正常份量显著高于感知合适份量，性别、年龄和体重指数对某些食物有显著影响。
该发现表明，消费者通常食用的份量大于他们认为适合随意性食物的份量。估计的下限和上限对于制定务实的公共卫生信息以促使消费者更好地控制份量将是有价值的。
