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Background: Wound healing is a complex process, which requires adequate energy sources, proteins, and specific minerals and vitamins. If an individual is unable to get or to eat the nutrients required, the wound healing process might be disrupted. The aim of this study was to investigate food-related factors, meal patterns and meal quality in relation to nutritional status in elderly out-patients with leg ulcers. Methods: Nutritional status was assessed by use of the Mini Nutritional Assessment in 70 patients living in their own homes. Fifty-six of the patients recorded actual meals and snacks over four consecutive days. Meal patterns and meal quality were evaluated with the help of a qualitative classification system, the Food Based Concept for Classification of Eating Episodes. Results: Thirty-six patients were classified as well-nourished, 32 were at risk of malnutrition and two were malnourished. More patients in the risk group for malnutrition did not buy their own food, and usually ate alone. Incomplete Meals and Low Quality Snacks were the most common eating types. The patients at risk of malnutrition had significantly fewer prepared Complete Meals than the well-nourished patients. Conclusion: The results show a diet and meal quality which hardly meets the requirements for nutrients that are important in wound healing, especially for those patients assessed at risk of malnutrition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the study was to describe the nutritional intake, meal patterns, physical activity and need for help in nine women living in their own homes and being treated for venous leg ulcers. Food habits were identified by use of interviews and food diaries completed by the women during a period of seven days. The intake of energy and nutrients from 304 eating events during seven days was calculated and meal patterns were evaluated using a qualitative system for meal classification. Physical activity and the degree of need were identified with the help of interviews. The intakes of energy and key nutrients for wound healing, such as protein, vitamin C and zinc, were not optimal according to the Swedish nutrition recommendations, although food habits were well organized. Most of the women had hardly any physical activities and the need of help and support varied, from daily visits to visits every second week.

Objective: The food selection and nutrient intake were investigated in women with anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and controls., Methods: Dietary data was obtained by 24-hour recall, and 7-day recording among eating disordered patients, and by 3-day registration among controls., Results: The intake of energy and nutrients differed from controls, as expected, while there were no differences between anorectics and bulimics in this respect, except for iron. There were only minor differences among the three groups studied with respect to nutrient density. Energy percentages of protein, fat, and carbohydrates, were similar in all groups, but a subdivision of the macronutrients into respective sources showed that bulimics had a lower relative and absolute intake of carbohydrates from bread and cereals than anorectics and controls., Conclusion: Eating disorder patients, despite their marginal food intake, still met the minimum requirement for most nutrients according to the Nordic Nutrient recommendations.

Established nutritional science methods and a new concept for meal-classification were applied to shiftworkers (rotating 3-shift) data. The frequency of meals and snacks of different nutritional quality as a function of work schedule was evaluated, as well as the content of selected nutrients (energy, fat, sucrose, dietary fibres, ascorbic acid) in these meals and snacks. The results do not indicate that rotating 3-shift work affects the nutritional quality of the diet or the frequency of different types of meals and snacks. A qualitative classification of meals and snacks might be a cost-effective strategy for data-evaluation in field studies of shift workers' eating habits when quantitative estimations of the dietary intake are to be complicated.