Dietary patterns of children in American Samoa

This report presents the findings of a dietary survey among 63 children aged five to seven years, on the island of Tutuila, American Samoa. Twenty‐four hour recall interviews were conducted with the children and household food preparers to estimate kinds and frequencies of foods consumed. The foods were aggregated into 19 groups, and a principal components analysis was performed to determine patterning among the groups. Four factors, acounting for two thirds of the variability in frequency of food group usage, are reported on. The first two factors focused on introduced foods that are primarily purchased in the markets: breakfasts of milk, eggs and cereal or bread and butter; lunches and dinners with sandwiches, chicken and non‐traditional vegetables, as well as snacks (cookies, candy, sodas, chips and similar foods). The next two factors focused on mostly traditional Samoan foods that have been combined in prestige meals for centuries (meat, fish, taro, breadfruit and bananas). Analyses of covariance on the diet factor scores indicated that per capita income was not associated with any of the dietary factors, but maintenance of a plantation was related to high scores on the two traditional food factors. On the basis of previous dietary work on Samoan adults, it is suggested that, since gardening is associated with higher frequency of use of traditional foods, it may also be associated with improved nutritional quality of a diet. Key words: GardeningDiet PatternsHousehold InfluencesSamoan Children

Biology · Body mass index · Environmental health · Food group · Food habits · Geography · Multivariate analysis · Nutrition transition · Samoan · Child Nutrition and Water Access · Medicine · Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet · Urban Agriculture and Sustainability · Food Science

• Infant feeding and infant health in American Samoa

  Open Access•James R Bindon, Claudine Cabrera‐Mereb et al.•American Journal of Human Biology•1990

  Incluir item

• Isotopic Insights into Dietary Life History, Social Status, and Food Sharing in American Samoa

  Open Access•J W Eerkens, Eric J Bartelink et al.•American Antiquity•2019

  Incluir item

• An evaluation of the diet of three groups of samoan adults

  James R Bindon•Ecology of Food and Nutrition•1984

  Incluir item

• Breadfruit, banana, beef, and beer

  James R Bindon•Ecology of Food and Nutrition•1982

  Incluir item

• The body build and composition of Samoan children

  Open Access•James R Bindon•American Journal of Physical…•1984

  Incluir item

• Samoan Material Culture

  Felix M Keesing, Peter Buck•Pacific Affairs•1931

  Incluir item