Relationships among dietary variety, BMI, and micronutrient intakes among US adults aged 21–60: NHANES 2003–2006

Previous research has shown that dietary variety augments energy intake over a single meal, and possibly over the longer term. The aims of this study were to examine dietary variety consumed by US adults in recent years and the relationships of six types of dietary variety with BMI and micronutrient intakes. Analyses were conducted on one day of dietary data, including adults 21-60 years from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2003-04 and 2005-06 who were not pregnant or lactating, had a BMI of 18.5 to 100, and were not missing dietary recall information. The total sample and a subsample of biologically plausible dietary reporters were analyzed. In the total sample MyPlate variety and energy-weak variety were inversely related to BMI, while MyPlate and energy-dense variety were positively related to BMI for plausible reporters. High energy-weak variety reduced the odds of overweight or obesity in the total and plausible samples. In only the plausible sample, MyPlate, micronutrient-dense, and energy-dense variety increased the odds. All variety scores were positively associated with micronutrient intakes (mean%EAR) for 15 micronutrients in the total sample and remained positive, although attenuated, for MyPlate, energy-dense and micronutrient-dense variety. In the total sample all variety types reduced the odds for not meeting the EAR, in the plausible sample; energy-dense variety, MyPlate, and micronutrient-dense variety reduced these odds. Based on the association with increased BMI, specific types of dietary variety should be studied experimentally for their potential causal role in the obesity epidemic separately from overall variety