Nutrition study: People usually manage to eat healthily at home, but are still consuming too much fat outside the home, according to research conducted at the Trinity Centre for Health Sciences in Dublin.
Weekends could also spell dieting disaster, as fat intake is significantly higher than on weekdays, the study concludes.
On weekdays at home, fat contributed about 35 per cent of the energy intake of both men and women, which is around the recommended limit. Outside of the home, however, this rose to over 43 per cent, according to the report, published in Public Health Nutrition.
At the weekend, the figures rose even further. Both at home and outside the home, fat intake was over the recommended limits. Women eating outside the home on weekends reached the highest level, with fat making up nearly 46 per cent of their energy intake, the report shows.
The findings could have implications for future dietary guidelines, said Dr Sinead McCarthy, a research nutritionist who was one of the authors of the study.
"Consumers should be encouraged to make more sensible food choices when they are out," she said. "Establishments selling food should also be encouraged to provide more low-fat alternatives."
In the study, 1,400 volunteers completed a seven-day food diary, detailing everything that they ate and where the food was prepared, as part of the North South Ireland Food Consumption Survey. The levels of fat, carbohydrates and other nutrients were then calculated using computer software, and attributed to food prepared either at home or away from the home.
The findings were not restricted to people who eat outside of the home regularly, according to Dr McCarthy. "No matter whether people were low, medium or high in terms of the number of times a week that they ate outside of the home, these were always higher fat choices than eating at home."
The study was completed as part of a programme of research funded by the Department of Agriculture. It is hoped the findings will help inform future evidence-based health promotion campaigns, according to another of the investigators, Prof Michael Gibney, from the Department of Medicine at Trinity College Dublin.
"Dietary advice must be given within a cultural context," he said. "You only need to walk through Dublin to see the number of delis and other food outlets." He said it was now important to determine exactly where, outside the home, had the most influence on diet.
"The immediate assumption may be that this is simply due to consumption of burgers and chips," he said. "However, I could speculate that it may be due instead to portion sizes, or perhaps excess mayonnaise and spreads. The important step now is to gather evidence, rather than follow hunches."
This information should ensure that future public health campaigns about healthy eating are effective. "For example, the campaigns could start to target weekends' fat intake, by publishing advertisements on Thursdays and Fridays reminding people to choose their food wisely when they're out this weekend," he said.