Diet quality of dishes differs by preparation location in Hunan Province, China

Abstract

Eating out has been considered as a negative factor for nutritional status. However, eating out can include meals prepared at home and eaten outside. Conversely, meals consumed at home can be brought from outside, as take‐out and home deliveries have become popular in China. Thus, we evaluated whether diet quality differs by meal preparation location. The present study collected 8 common consumed dishes (sliced pork with dried bean curd, shredded pork with green pepper, stir‐fried beef with garlic, stir‐fried tomato and scrambled eggs, pan‐fried tofu, stir‐fried shredded chicken breast with red chili pepper, stir‐fired sponge gourd and fried rice with egg) in each of randomly selected 20 small restaurants, large restaurant, urban households or rural households, respectively, in Hunan province, China. For each dish, we randomly chose 5 from each group and mixed into 1 sample, and chemically measured nutrient contents in each sample. Therefore, there are 4 samples of each dish in each group. Differences in nutrient amount of dishes among groups were analyzed by ANOVA and Kruskal‐Wallis if applicable. Quantile regression, assessing nutrient content as a function of dish preparation location, is employed. The key general finding of present study is that Na/K ratio in restaurant‐made dishes with animal foods, fried rice with egg or total dishes is higher than those in household‐made (all P<0.05). Interestingly, there is 15% greater protein content in household‐made dishes with animal foods compared to restaurant‐made counterpart (P=0.0286), which induces higher energy content. For dishes without animal foods, both fat and energy from fat (%) are more in restaurant‐made than in household‐made. When treating all dishes as an entirety, lower K, higher Na/K ratio, fat and energy percent from fat were observed in restaurant group (all P<0.05). The influence of preparation location is found to vary significantly across the nutrient content distribution. In comparison to household, this effect is significant at the 0.25 quantile where restaurant‐made dishes contain 0.5577 and 0.0240 more fat and energy from fat, respectively. Moreover, there are considerable negative influence in energy from protein at 0.75 quantile and protein and energy contents at 0.95 quantile. Restaurant‐made dishes show high Na/K, which is significant at the highest quantile. Our findings indicate higher Na/K in restaurant‐made dishes. Household‐made dishes with animal foods are characterized by more protein and induced higher energy. Conversely, there are higher fat and energy percent from fat in restaurant‐made dishes without animal foods. Household‐made dishes are likely to be relatively healthy.