Food for thought: what do short questions on food habits tell us about dietary intakes?

Short questions on food habits, such as 'How many serves of fruit do you usually eat each day?' are often used to assess dietary behaviours. This report presents analysis of the 2007 Australian National Children's Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey to assess how well responses to short questions compare with more comprehensive tools, such as keeping a diary of all food eaten over two 24-hour periods. Results show that short questions may be a reasonable proxy for type of milk usually consumed and a reasonable approximation of fruit and vegetable intake, but are of limited value for predicting sodium or iodine intakes.