The Japanese Food Guide Spinning Top describes the number of servings of each food group to be eaten per day,not per meal. Thus,the effect of skipping meals may be overlooked. However,studies evaluating the relationship between skipping meals and number of servings are lacking. We examined the relationship between skipping meals,nutrition intake,and number of servings. A 3-day dietary record applying the weighing method was obtained from 89 female college students. We divided subjects into 2 groups,the non-mealskipping (NMS) group (n=56) and the meal-skipping (MS) group (n=33),and compared dietary intake and number of servings using the Mann-Whitney test or chi-square test. We found that the MS group had significantly lower intakes of energy,potassium,iron,vitamin B1,vitamin C,dietary fiber,and salt than the NMS group. In contrast,percentages of energy intake from animal protein and confectionery were higher in the MS group than the NMS group. Furthermore,number of servings of grain and vegetable dishes were significantly lower in the MS group than in the NMS group. Our findings suggest that skipping meals affects the number of servings of grain and vegetable dishes in particular.

View full abstract