Household food consumption, individual caloric intake and obesity in France

Using 2 years of home scanned data on household food purchases in France, we show how to infer the profile of average individual caloric intakes according to gender, age, and body mass index of household members. We also infer the individual consumption of macronutrients as carbohydrates, lipids or proteins. We then provide a descriptive analysis of eating in France over a long period of consumption that we compare to nutritional recommendations given by the French National Health and Nutrition Program. The results suggest that French people eat too much fats and proteins and not enough carbohydrates with respect to recommendations. They also show that obese or overweight individuals consume more calories at all ages and their consumption of fat is 20 % higher than normal individuals, meaning that public policies should aim at reducing fat consumption. We also find that the obesity of teenage boys cannot be explained by different food consumption as their dietary intake profiles are similar to other teenagers. Promoting physical activity for boys rather than public policies reducing food consumption could be more efficient. Copyright Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014