Nutritional balance of cheese (descriptive statistics) - 2012

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Data

[PEREZGONZALEZ Jose D (2012). Nutritional balance of cheese (descriptive statistics). Knowledge (ISSN 2324-1624), 2013, pages 110-112.] [DOI] [Printer friendly]

Cheese's BNI (description)

Perezgonzalez assessed the nutritional balance of cheese³ in 2012¹, as part of a research on the nutritional composition of food in New Zealand. This article provides descriptive information both about the sample of products under research (foodBNI) as well as about a hypothetical diet based on those products (dietBNI).

foodBNI

The distribution of nutritional balance is shown in illustration 1. The median was located at BNI 127.54 and the middle 68% of products ranged between BNI 123 (P₁₆) and BNI 143 (P₈₄). There was a slight positive skewness (mean=130.12, zSkew=1.67) but, overall, the distribution approached a normal distribution.

Illustration 1: Food's nutritional balance distribution
		International RDIs
Scale	BNI	WHO	US/CAN	AUS/NZ	UK
=0
>0
≥10
≥20
≥30
≥40
≥50
≥60
≥70
≥80			3		3
≥90			3	1	3
≥100	1		6	6	6
≥110	2		9	12	9
≥120	16	1	7	8	7
≥130	4	6	1	1	1
≥140	4	15		1
≥150	2	3
≥160		3
≥170		1
≥180
≥190
≥200
Median	127.54	143.22	113.06	114.78	112.04
SPR	10.30	10.31	14.77	10.30	14.29
P16	122.84	138.39	97.86	108.25	96.86
P84	143.43	159.01	127.39	128.85	125.44
RSkew	5.60	5.48	-0.44	3.77	-0.89
Mean	130.12	146.35	112.06	117.89	111.21
StDev	10.78	10.29	13.22	10.46	13.18
zSkew	1.67	2.17	-0.40	1.65	-0.25
zKurt	0.40	0.64	-0.45	0.59	-0.42
Unstandardized	small	medium	large	( Avg.StDev )
effect size4	2	6	9	( 12 )

The distribution of nutritional balance varied slightly according to the particular recommended dietary intakes (RDIs) of reference, although all followed a pattern similar to the one just described. Even so, this group of products appeared largely more unbalanced under WHO's RDIs and largely less unbalanced under Australia's and, especially, under US' and UK's RDIs (when attending to the unstandardized effect size).

Correlations between international indexes and the BNI were high, but moderately to high between themselves (illustration 2). Thus, although there was a common pattern in the distribution of nutritional balance across international indexes for this group of products, there was also more variability in how unbalanced a particular cheese appeared under a given international index.

Illustration 2: Correlations between international RDIs
r / rho	BNI	WHO	US/CAN	AUS/NZ	UK
BNI		.683	.851	.909	.861
WHO	.852		.441	.691	.443
US/CAN	.826	.565		.786	.992
AUS/NZ	.937	.813	.799		.775
UK	.828	.559	.997	.780

dietBNI

As part of a hypothetical diet where all products contributed the same weight of cheese, the resulting nutritional unbalance would remain practically the same for most indexes. Thus, there is no apparent benefit in eating such a varied cheese diet.

Illustration 3: Diet's nutritional balance
Protein	Carbs	Sugar	Fat	Sat.fat	Fiber	Sodium
22.5	1.0	0.9	27.8	18.2	0.0	0.748
International RDIs		BNI	WHO	US/CAN	AUS/NZ	UK
(diet)		125.09	145.09	107.91	110.21	107.91
(Values per 100g)

Methods

Research approach

Exploratory study for mapping the nutritional balance of cheese³ in New Zealand.

Sample

A sample of 29 cheeses, including diverse types and brands (see Perezgonzalez, 2012a¹). Notwithstanding this, the actual products were collected in a convenient manner from four major national supermarket chains.

Variables

Variables of interest for this research were the following:

• Weight contribution of seven nutrients (protein, carbohydrate, sugar, fat, saturated fat, fiber and sodium) to 100g of a food product.
• The Balanced Nutrition Index (BNI) of each food product, as calculated from above variables.
• Aggregated information for the sample of products (foodBNI).
• Aggregated information about the individual nutrients for the simulation of hypothetical diets (dietBNI).

Materials & analysis

Relevant data were collated after purchasing the food products or by capturing such information from producers' websites if this information was available and was deemed reliable. The data were then assessed using the Balanced Nutrition Index™ (BNI™) technology (see Perezgonzalez, 2012b²).

SPSS-v21 was used for the computation of variables, including the BNI and international indexes, and for descriptive statistical analyses.

References

References

1. PEREZGONZALEZ Jose D (2012a). Cheesy cheese. The Balanced Nutrition Index (ISSN 1177-8849), 2013, issue 2.

2. PEREZGONZALEZ Jose D (2012b). Balanced Nutrition Index™ (BNI™) (2e). Knowledge (ISSN 2324-1624), 2013, pages 38-40.

+++ Notes +++

3. Different types of cheese but excluding processed cheese.

4. This is the estimated unstandardized effect size for group differences (Cohen's d and Glass's Δ) given an average standard deviation and following Cohen's d effect size interpretation. It can be used to ascertain the relative importance of descriptive data without the need to perform inferential tests.

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Author

Jose D PEREZGONZALEZ (2013). Massey University, Turitea Campus, Private Bag 11-222, Palmerston North 4442, New Zealand. (JDPerezgonzalez).

Want to know more?

BNI analyses of individual cheeses

You can access either the BNI™ database or the 'BNI™ journal (2013, issue 2) - Cheesy cheese' for individual nutrition analyses of each cheese in the sample.

WikiofScience - Nutritional balance of cheese (further knowledge)

These WikiofScience pages provide introductory and inferential analyses about the nutritional balance of cheese.

WikiofScience - Nutritional balance of foods

This WikiofScience page collates information about several foods on a single page and provides useful links to the appropriate files.

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