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  • Original Article
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Evaluation of dietary fibre intake from infancy to adolescence against various references – results of the DONALD Study

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 60, pages 909–914 (2006)Cite this article

Abstract

Objective:

To evaluate dietary fibre intake from infancy to adolescence against various reference standards expressed on a body weight, age or energy intake (EI) basis and to describe age and 15-year time trends.

Design and subjects:

The ongoing longitudinal (open cohort) Dortmund Nutritional and Anthropometric Longitudinally Designed Study with a total of 7810 3-day dietary records from 980 infants, children and adolescents aged 6 months to 18 years collected between 1990 and 2004.

Results:

Absolute dietary fibre intakes (g/day) increased with age from infancy to adolescence; dietary fibre density (g/1000 kcal) reached a maximum at 1 year and remained constant after the transition to the family diet. Expressed as g/kg body weight, dietary fibre intake increased during infancy with a maximum at 1 year, but decreased thereafter during childhood and adolescence. Dietary fibre intake was low irrespective of the reference used and showed no time trends, with the exception of a small negative trend in 4–8-year olds and 9–13-year-old girls.

Conclusion:

As intake of dietary fibre in our sample was significantly associated with EI and fibre density remained constant after infancy, our data support an energy-based approach for establishing a reference value for children and adolescents.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the ‘Ministerium für Schule und Weiterbildung, Wissenschaft und Forschung des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen’ and by the ‘Bundesministerium für Gesundheit’.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Institute of Child Nutrition, Dortmund, Germany

    U Alexy, M Kersting & W Sichert-Hellert

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  1. U Alexy
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  2. M Kersting
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  3. W Sichert-Hellert
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Correspondence to U Alexy.

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Guarantor: U Alexy.

Contributors: All authors were involved in the concept of the paper. UA was primarily responsible for the data analysis. WS contributed to statistical analysis. MK and UA collaborated in writing the paper.

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Alexy, U., Kersting, M. & Sichert-Hellert, W. Evaluation of dietary fibre intake from infancy to adolescence against various references – results of the DONALD Study. Eur J Clin Nutr 60, 909–914 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1602400

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