• Indication
• Pros and cons
• Practical considerations
• Resources required
• References
• Examples and links

• Dietary assessment
• Methods
• Duplicate Diets
• Indication

Indication

Assessment of dietary intake by duplicate diets is considered the gold standard method of assessing intakes of trace nutrients at an individual level (Abdulla, 1989).

Direct chemical analysis of trace elements such as selenium, iodine, and zinc in plant based staples may be necessary where there are no local food composition data due to the wide variation of these elements in the soil and the effect of agronomy practices.  Norwegian investigators reported major differences when Finnish rather than Norwegian selenium food composition data were used to calculate selenium intakes  (Gibson, 2005).

Duplicate diets have been used to assess the nutrient status of vegans and specifically iodine status (Lightowler 1998).

Duplicate diets are the only method available to measure dietary exposure to some contaminants (Pennington, J, 2004).

The method can be used to validate biomarkers e.g. a biomarker for phyto-oestrogens (Ritchie, 2004)

Duplicate diets are a suitable method for metabolic or energy balance studies (Elia, 2003).

Back to top