Abstract
The purpose of this study is to show how the daily energy intake is distributed among meals. The subjects were 153 married male workers aged 30-59 years living in metropolitan areas. First, subjects were classified into 4 groups by quartile on the basis of what proportion of daily energy intake was represented by breakfast both on weekdays and weekends. For Q1 (less than 25 percentile), daily energy intake was significantly lower than any other group for both weekdays and weekends. Dinner represented a higher proportion of energy intake than any other meal across the four groups for both weekdays and weekends. Second, we studied dietary intake in every group and examined the distribution of eight nutrients. Q2 (from 25 to 50 percentile) had a better nutrient intake on weekdays and Q3 (from 50 to 75 percentile) had a better nutrient intake on weekends. There were significant differences in the intake distribution in respect of protein, iron, Vitamin B1, Vitamin B2 and Vitamin C among the four groups. Third, with regard to snacks, we examined the proportion of energy intake for every meal by quartile by setting the energy intake of breakfast as 1. For Q1, in which breakfast represented the smallest proportion, the proportion of energy obtained through snacks was greater than that of breakfast. The proportion of each daily energy intake (that is breakfast vs lunch vs dinner vs snacks and breakfast is 1) in Q1 was 1:12.8:15.3:3.3 on weekdays, and 1:4:6:1.9 on weekends respectively. The proportion of energy obtained through snacks is larger than that obtained from breakfast. Q3 was the closest to the recommended energy distribution (that is breakfast vs lunch vs dinner=1:1.5:1.5) for both weekdays and weekends. The proportion represented by snacks in relation to breakfast for Q3, however, was as much as 0.4 for both weekdays and weekends.
