Food intakes of 2,189 women in five north central states

Nearly 2,200 women, ranging in age from 30 to more than 90 years, living in five North Central states, provided the 24-hour dietaries from which data summarized in this bulletin were obtained. The women interviewed in Iowa and South Dakota were selected by area-probability sampling methods, so that they represented all women over 29 years of age in each of these two states. Four other samples were drawn from three urban centers: one from Urbana, Illinois; two (one white, one Negro) from Lansing-East Lansing, Michigan; and one from St. Paul, Minnesota.\nThe mean nutritive values of 24-hour dietaries reported by the white women in the five samples were similar: Food energy values ranged from 1,665 to 1,780 Cal.; protein values from 53 to 64 gm.; calcium, from 0.44 to 0.64 gm.; iron, from 9.9 to 11.9 mg.; ascorbic acid, from 53 to 75 mg.; thiamine, from 0.9 to 1.1 mg.; riboflavin, from 1.1 to 1.4 mg.; niacin, from 9.2 to 11.0 mg.; vitamin A value, from 4,425 to 6,730 I.U. Individual intakes within each sample varied considerably.\nDays' diets of Negro women in the Lansing-East Lansing sample supplied mean amounts of food energy and of all nutrients except vitamin A that were lower than those of dietaries of any group of white women studied.