880
THOMPSON AND LENGEMANN
Table 1— COMPARISON OF APPARENT ANNUAL CONSUMPTION*
OF VARIOUS FOODS WHEN A ONE-WEEK SURVEY IS EXPANDED
TO AN ANNUAL ESTIMATE, 1961 (PILOT FOOD STAMP PROGRAM)
Balancesheet-
Rural low income
Foods
Apr.-May
Fresh sweet corn
Fresh tomatoes
Sept.-Oct.
1.6
62.9
Sept.—Oct.
(U.S.)
58.2
35.9
12.7
77,8
325.0
170.5
172.1
214.8
291.2
208.9
251.5
427.5
212.2
383.3
277.5
386.8
146.3
493.1
101.4
All vegetables
146.1
275.1
Meat, fish, and
163.1
eggs
Grain products
Dairy products
268.1
517.6
126.9
Apr.—May
aaetnee
1.6
12.5
All fruits
Urban low income
150.8
4.2
TOL 7
176.8
7.9
153.8
*Annual consumption rate in pounds.
Sweet corn and tomatoes, give examples of the extremes of annual
consumption patterns that can result from expanding a week’s survey
results. Major-category groupings show the nature of variations in
the complete diet structure.
These can be compared with balance-
Sheet data that are actually computed on a year’s disappearance of
food in the United States.? Grouping foods in this manner minimizes
much of the variation found in individual foods, but it is indicative of
the changes that occur when estimating procedures vary so widely.
Other estimates of food consumption may be obtained from con‘sumer panels or nutrition studies, but such sources are usually lacking
in area coverage or are confined to very restricted numbers and
Situations. It is obvious that the uses made of most food-consumption
data leave much to be desired in terms of accurately estimating radio-
nuclide intake.
* The typical variations
1960-1963
experienced in radionuclide intake from
are shown in Figs. 1 to 3, where various consumption
estimates for three geographic areas of the United States are combined
with radionuclide data from the Health and Safety Laboratory Tri-City
Diet Studies. The estimates for 1963 show the Northeast ranging from
8400 to 16,500 pc of Sr, the North Central area from 5500 to 10,900 pc,
and the West from 3800 to 7400 pc. The general trend of increased
Sr intake which followed the nuclear tests is well defined in each
estimate.
In these figures the same “Sr data are used for each estimate of
intake, but the food-consumption values are taken from various studies
(Refs.
1 to 3, 5, and 6). The range of variations is restricted by the
limited number of population groups for which there are estimates of
food consumption. However, it is obvious that the teen-age diet had the