Dietary intakes, eating style and overweight in the Stanislas Family Study

OBJECTIVES: To describe the eating patterns of members of French families and to assess the relationships between dietary intakes, eating style and overweight. DESIGN: Cross-sectional analysis of nutritional and behavioural characteristics. SUBJECTS: 1320 members of 387 families (age 11-65 y) attending the Centre for Preventive Medicine for a routine medical check-up. MEASUREMENTS: Individual body weight and height were measured. Food intake was assessed using a three day dietary record. Eating style was measured using the French validated version of the Dutch Eating Behaviour Questionnaire. RESULTS: In each of the four groups (men, women, boys and girls), dietary restraint was positively correlated with overweight (P less than or equal to 0.001) and associated with lower energy intakes (P less than or equal to 0.05 - P less than or equal to 0.001). A negative association between energy intake and overweight was found in girls only (P less than or equal to 0.001). In all cases, overweight and dietary restraint exaggerated any existing macronutrient imbalance in energy intake (ie higher protein and fat contributions, lower carbohydrate contribution). Emotional eating was positively correlated to body mass index in women only (P less than or equal to 0.01). External eating was mainly a characteristic of children (P less than or equal to 0.001). CONCLUSION: As in overweight subjects, clear relationships were found in this sample of general population between dietary intakes and eating style. The population will be followed up for 10 y. in the long term, these results should have implications in the prevention of obesity.