Abstract:
With changes of lifestyles and social values in
the food culture, many individuals working as managerial
level employees in the as private sector are seemingly
selecting more improper daily meal combinations. This
study was designed to determine whether this occurrence
can have a severe impact to imbalance the daily nutrient
intakes by the individuals in the mentioned social
segment, which increase the tendency of having nutrition
related chronic diseases. In a hierarchy range from
junior executives to CEOs of private sector organizations,
800 individuals were selected by disproportionate
stratified random sampling. Selected individuals are
interviewed using a structured questionnaire to assess
their daily food combinations and their consumed portion
sizes. Frequently consumed meal combinations were then
analyzed for their macronutrient composition, to compare
with world Health organizations’ (WHO) Reference
Dietary Intake (RDI) levels of nutrients. The results
reveal of significantly (p<0.05) higher daily fat (45.3
±1.7 g/day) and protein (65.2 ±1.4 g/day) intakes than the
WHO recommendation levels and significantly (p<0.05)
lower in dietary fibre (22.3 ±1.1 g/day) contents by
selected participants. Carbohydrate intake (133.1 ±2.2
g/day) was higher than reference levels but was not
significant (p>0.05). This indicates of a considerable risk
for many individuals in the concerned social segment, of
having non-communicable diseases, if observed dietary
patterns are continued.
