Research
Mixed
Household-level food expenditure and availability data (e.g., FAO Food Balance Sheets) are not reflective of individual dietary intakes and fail to capture intra-nation heterogeneity.
Do not rely on national food availability statistics to assess individual or subgroup dietary risks. These aggregate measures fail to capture individual consumption patterns and demographic disparities, leading to inaccurate health assessments.
GoodRefutesHIGH confidence
Available instruments have assessed food commodities or household expenditures, which are not reflective of individual dietary intakes... These available data sources also do not assess heterogeneity within nations, such as by demographic subgroups that may vary in both dietary intakes and disease risk.
Why this rating
Based on the authors' systematic review of existing data sources.
Source
Global Dietary Database 2017: data availability and gaps on 54 major foods, beverages and nutrients among 5.6 million children and adults from 1220 surveys worldwide
Victoria Miller et al. · BMJ Global Health · 2021
DOI 10.1136/bmjgh-2020-003585
systematic_review · n=5600000Cited 77×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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- Data on dietary intakes for infants, young children, school-age children, older adults, and pregnant/lactating women is significantly sparse, with less than one-third of surveys including this information.Strong
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