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Background The dietary habits of the Caribbean have been changing to include more fast foods and a less nutrient dense diet. The aims of this study are to examine dietary patterns in Barbados and highlight foods for a nutritional intervention. Methods Four-day food diaries collected from control participants in the population-based, case–control Barbados National Cancer Study (BNCS). Results Forty-nine adult participants (91% response) completed the diaries providing 191 days of dietary data. Total energy intake was almost identical to data collected 5-years earlier in the Barbados Food Consumption and Anthropometric Survey 2000, but the percent energy derived from fat was from 2.1% to 5.2% higher. Sugar intake exceeded the Caribbean recommendation almost four-fold, while intakes of calcium, iron (women only), zinc and dietary fibre were below recommendations. Fish and chicken dishes were the two largest sources of energy and fat. Sweetened drinks and juices provided over 40% of total sugar intake. Conclusions These data provide existing dietary patterns and strongly justify a nutritional intervention program to reduce dietary risk factors for chronic disease. The intervention could focus on the specific foods highlighted, both regarding frequency and amount of consumption. Effectiveness can be evaluated pre- and post-intervention using our Food Frequency Questionnaire developed for BNCS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout biomedical research, there is growing interest in the use of ancestry informative markers (AIMs) to deconstruct racial categories into useful variables. Studies on recently admixed populations have shown significant population substructure due to differences in individual ancestry; however, few studies have examined Caribbean populations. Here we used a panel of 28 AIMs to examine the genetic ancestry of 298 individuals of African descent from the Caribbean islands of Jamaica, St. Thomas and Barbados. Differences in global admixture were observed, with Barbados having the highest level of West African ancestry (89.6%± 2.0) and the lowest levels of European (10.2%± 2.2) and Native American ancestry (0.2%± 2.0), while Jamaica possessed the highest levels of European (12.4%± 3.5) and Native American ancestry (3.2%± 3.1). St. Thomas, USVI had ancestry levels quite similar to African Americans in continental U.S. (86.8%± 2.2 West African, 10.6%± 2.3 European, and 2.6%± 2.1 Native American). Significant substructure was observed in the islands of Jamaica and St. Thomas but not Barbados (K=1), indicating that differences in population substructure exist across these three Caribbean islands. These differences likely stem from diverse colonial and historical experiences, and subsequent evolutionary processes. Most importantly, these differences may have significant ramifications for case-control studies of complex disease in Caribbean populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]