A Definition of "Regular Meals" Driven by Dietary Quality Supports a Pragmatic Schedule

• Published in: Nutrients 2020-09, Vol.12 (9), p.2667
• Main Authors: Lohse, Barbara, Faulring, Kathryn, Mitchell, Diane C, Cunningham-Sabo, Leslie
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Behavior; Child; Children & youth; chrononutrition; Data collection; Diet, Healthy - standards; Diet, Healthy - statistics & numerical data; dietary assessment; dietary patterns; dietary quality; Eating; eating competence; Feeding Behavior; Female; Food; Food Services; Fruits; Humans; Informed consent; Linear Models; Lunches; Male; meal timing; Meals; Nutrition Policy; Nutrition research; Obesity; Parents & parenting; Participation; Proteins; Public health; Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; Schedules; School Health Services; Seafood; Terminology as Topic; Time Factors; Weight control
• ISSN: 2072-6643; 2072-6643
• DOI: 10.3390/nu12092667

Public health guidelines advise eating regular meals without defining "regular." This study constructed a meaning for "regular" meals congruent with dietary quality. Parents of 4th grade youth in a school-based intervention (Clinicaltrials.gov NCT02491294) completed three, ASA24 online 24-h dietary recalls. Differences in time of intake across days for breakfasts, lunches, dinners were categorized with consistency denoted as always, often/sometimes or rarely/never and assigned values of 3, 2 or 1, respectively. Meal-specific values were summed to form mealtime regularity scores (mReg) ranging from 3 (low) to 9. Healthy eating index (HEI) scores were compared to mReg controlling for weekday/weekend recall pattern. Linear regression predicted HEI scores from mReg. Parents ( = 142) were non-Hispanic white (92%), female (88%) and educated (73%). One mReg version, mReg1 was significantly associated with total HEI, total fruit, whole fruit, tended to correlate with total protein, seafood/plant protein subcomponents. mReg1 predicted total HEI ( = 0.001) and was inversely related to BMI ( = 0.04). A score of three ( ) was awarded to breakfasts, lunches or dinners with day-to-day differences of 0-60 min; also, lunches/dinners with one interval of 60-120 min when two meals were ≤60 min apart. More rigid mReg versions were not associated with dietary quality.