Studying scenarios of nutrition intervention: the example of soft drinks - ARCHIVED

Using data from the Canadian Community Health Survey, it is possible to estimate the distributions of usual nutrient intake. It is more difficult to estimate the usual consumption of specific food items. Consumption has to be estimated by combining the food item's consumption frequency with the distribution of consumers' usual intake of the food item. It may be difficult to estimate that distribution for less common food items, and it is virtually impossible to obtain reliable estimates of the food item's consumption frequency with only two days of data per respondent. Using an outside source or a parametric assumption may help to overcome this problem. One solution is to use an indirect approach to estimate a food item's impact on the distribution of a nutrient's usual intake by eliminating that food item or partly or completely replacing it with another food item.