To demonstrate that dietary datasets from the Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals, a US population survey, allow comparisons with national data and provide food composition datasets that can be used to generate similar dietary data.

Two studies are described: the Lower Mississippi Delta Nutrition Intervention Research Initiative (Delta NIRI), which used a 24-hour recall, and a Department of Defense Military Nutrition Research Task, which used 3-day dietary records. Both studies used the same food composition tables.

Rural Lower Mississippi Delta and an Army post.

Four hundred and nine residents (adults and children) from the rural Delta region of Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi, and 74 career soldiers from the Sergeants Major Academy, Fort Bliss, Texas.

The Delta NIRI study found that fruit and vegetable consumption for these rural residents was lower than that found nationally. Additionally, the quality of vegetable servings is of concern since a large percentage came from french fries and potato chips. In the Sergeants Major Academy study, the national survey food composition tables allowed for easy analysis of intake data and comparisons with dietary recommendations.

Strategies similar to those used for the Delta NIRI and Military Nutrition Research Task can be used widely, allowing comparisons of ‘defined populations’ with nationally distributed data. Additionally, measurement of dietary change is more efficient when the same protocol is used subsequently to collect more data, a method similar to that used by the US Department of Agriculture to describe food consumption patterns from one survey to another.