Evaluation of dietary fibre intake from infancy to adolescence against various references - results of the DONALD Study

Objective: To evaluate dietary fibre intake from infancy to adolescence against various reference standards expressed on a body weight, age or energy intake ( EI) basis and to describe age and 15-year time trends. Design and subjects: The ongoing longitudinal ( open cohort) Dortmund Nutritional and Anthropometric Longitudinally Designed Study with a total of 7810 3-day dietary records from 980 infants, children and adolescents aged 6 months to 18 years collected between 1990 and 2004. Results: Absolute dietary fibre intakes ( g/day) increased with age from infancy to adolescence; dietary fibre density ( g/1000 kcal) reached a maximum at 1 year and remained constant after the transition to the family diet. Expressed as g/kg body weight, dietary fibre intake increased during infancy with a maximum at 1 year, but decreased thereafter during childhood and adolescence. Dietary fibre intake was low irrespective of the reference used and showed no time trends, with the exception of a small negative trend in 4-8-year olds and 9-13-year-old girls. Conclusion: As intake of dietary fibre in our sample was significantly associated with EI and fibre density remained constant after infancy, our data support an energy-based approach for establishing a reference value for children and adolescents.