Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Original Communication
  • Published:

Dietary intake of middle-aged men from an East and a West German city after the German reunification: do differences still exist?

Abstract

Objective: To compare the diets of men from East and West Germany after the reunification under the new food market conditions in the East.

Design: Both dietary surveys were part of the third MONICA surveys in population based random samples.

Setting: City of Erfurt in the Federal State of Thuringia, East Germany (dietary survey in 1991/92) and city of Augsburg in the Federal State of Bavaria, West Germany (dietary survey in 1994/95).

Subjects: Comparable samples of 185 Erfurt vs 331 Augsburg men, aged 45–64 y.

Measures: Data on food and nutrient intakes and percentage of users of foods are derived from 3 d weighed records from Erfurt and three matching days of 7 d weighed records from Augsburg.

Results: Nutrient intakes show the pattern of a typical Western diet in both samples with 15.2 en% from protein, 39.5 en% from fat, 38.8 en% from carbohydrates and 6.2 en% from alcohol in Erfurt. Corresponding figures for Augsburg are 16.4 en%, 37.9 en%, 39.0 en% and 6.5 en%. Intake of animal protein, cholesterol, water and selected micronutrients is distinctly higher in Augsburg.

Conclusions: Dietary differences still exist, but the pattern of difference has changed. It is unclear, whether differences between East and West exceed regional differences in the West.

Sponsorship: GSF—National Research Center for Environment and Health; Erfurt Medical School, Department of Preventive Cardiology.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Similar content being viewed by others

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Winkler, G., Brasche, S., Döring, A. et al. Dietary intake of middle-aged men from an East and a West German city after the German reunification: do differences still exist?. Eur J Clin Nutr 52, 98–103 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1600521

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1600521

Keywords

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links