Studies have found that dieters may overestimate the health of their eating habits

According to preliminary research to be presented at the 2022 American Heart Association Scientific Meeting, in one small study, most adults seeking to lose weight overestimated how healthy their diet was
.
Held in Chicago on November 5-7, 2022 and conducted online, the conference is an important global exchange
for updates on the latest scientific advances, research, and evidence-based clinical practice in cardiovascular science.

"We found that while fruits and vegetables are widely known to be healthy, there may be a disconnect between what researchers and health care professionals perceive as a healthy and balanced diet and what the public perceives as a healthy and balanced diet," said study author Jessica Zheng, Ph.
D.
, a postdoctoral fellowship in epidemiology at the Harvard T.
H.
School of Public Health and a general internist at Massachusetts General Hospital, both in Boston
.
This study was conducted
during Dr.
Zheng's pre-doctoral career/Ph.
D.
period.
She is a candidate in
the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly half of adults in the United States try to lose weight each year, and most of them try to eat more fruits, vegetables and salads
.
A healthy diet is essential
for the heart, good health, and longevity.
Dietary guidelines released by the American Heart Association in 2021 recommend that adults eat a variety of fruits and vegetables; Choose whole grains over refined grains; Choose healthy protein sources; Replace full-fat dairy products with skimmed and low-fat dairy products; choose lean meat (for those who eat meat); Replace tropical and animal oils with liquid vegetable oils; Choose foods that are minimally processed over ultra-processed foods; Minimize foods and beverages with added sugar; Choose foods with little or no added salt; Limit or avoid alcohol consumption
.

The researchers evaluated the diets of 116 adults ages 35 to 58 in the greater Pittsburgh area of Pennsylvania who were all trying to lose weight
.
Study participants discussed their nutritional status one-on-one with a dietitian and then recorded everything they ate and drank each day through the Fitbit app throughout the year
.
They also weigh themselves daily and wear Fitbit devices to track their physical activity
.

The researchers calculated the Healthy Eating Index (HEI) scores
at the beginning and end of the study based on the type of food participants reported.
Participants were asked to complete a two-day, 24-hour food recall at each time point
.
HEI is a measure
of how consistent a dietary pattern is with the U.
S.
government's dietary guidelines for Americans.
A score of 0 to 100 is possible, with higher scores indicating a healthier
diet.
The score is based on how often various dietary ingredients are consumed, such as fruits, vegetables, whole and refined grains, meat and seafood, sodium, fat, and sugar
.

Participants self-rated the quality of their meals at the start and end to determine their perceived scores
.
Depending on the components of the HEI, they also score between
0-100 points.
The self-assessment of their start diet was a "retrospective" because they rated
the diet they started and ended at the end of the study.
The difference between their start and finish scores was the change
in their perceived diet.
A difference of no more than 6 points between the researchers' HEI scores and the participants' perceived scores is considered "good agreement.
"

At the end of the study, about a quarter of the participants' scores were in good agreement
between their perceived diet scores and the scores assessed by the researchers.
The remaining 3/4 of the participants scored less consistently, with most reporting perceptual scores higher than the HEI scores
specified by the researchers.
The average perception score is 67.
6 and the average HEI score is 56.
4 points
.

When judging changes in dietary scores over 12 months, only one in ten participants had good agreement
between changes in self-assessment and changes in the researchers' HEI scores.
At the end of the study, the quality of the participants' diets improved by about one point
, based on the scores assessed by the researchers.
However, participants' self-ratings were thought to have improved by 18 points
.

"People who want to lose weight, or health professionals who help people achieve their weight loss or nutrition-related goals, should be aware that diet may have more room for
improvement than expected," Cheng said.
She recommends providing specific information on what aspects of their diet could be improved and how to proceed with healthy, sustainable nutritional changes
.

"Future research should examine the effects of helping people close the
gap between cognition and objective measures of diet quality," she said.

Dr.
Deepika Radu, an assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago's School of Applied Health Sciences and chair of the American Heart Association's Lifestyle Behavior Change Committee to Improve Health Factors, said, "Overestimating how healthy your food intake is may lead to weight gain, frustration over meeting an individual's weight loss goals, or a lower
likelihood of adopting healthier eating habits 。 "While misconceptions about dietary intake are common among dieters, these findings provide additional support for behavioral counseling interventions, including more frequent engagement with health care professionals such as dietitians or health coaches, to address cognitive gaps and support persistent, realistic healthy eating behaviors
.
"

One of the limitations of the study is that the participants were mostly female (79 percent) and most reported being white (84 percent), so the findings may not apply to other populations
.
In addition, the researchers only assessed the perception of diet quality at the end of the
study.
Assessments throughout the study may help answer questions such as whether cognition has become more realistic during the study, or whether a person's perceptions of their diet have helped or hindered them from changing their diet
.