Objectives: To identify food groups not addressed in the NHANES nutritional assessment that is commonly consumed by minority groups and to develop a survey that can bridge this gap
Methods: Foods that are not commonly consumed by minorities that were present in the 2023 NHANES survey were excluded (6 questions). Foods that are commonly consumed by minority population that the NHANES survey did not include were added (14 questions). The result of the modification is the NNA survey. The caloric, micronutritional, and macronutritional differences were then calculated using cronometer for a single serving size for each food group and were then compared to the NHANES assessment.
Results: Calorically subtracting the individual serving size of each food group added to the survery (4632) from each food group excluded (1499) from the survery yields a net total of 3133kcal. A major contributor to this deiscrepancy was through the consumption of carbohydrates, where the added foods (558.31g) subtracted from the excluded foods (110.45g) yielded a sum 447.86g.
Conclusions: The NNA survery has shown that it's additions and exclusions of different food groups would result in a higher caloric intake compared to the projections estimated by the NHANES projection when comparing one full serving size of each food group. The high caloric difference shown in the NNA questionnaire compared to the NHANES brings forth the idea that the higher prevalance of chronic diseases in minority groups may in part be due to the underestimation of dietary carbohydrates among other nutrients. The next step would be to administer the NNA questionnaire along with NHANES and compare the results to verify these differences.
