20121009 - Nutritional balance of corn chips (descriptive statistics) (2e) - 2012

[Data]

(Note: A revised version of this article exists⁴)
[<Normal page] [PEREZGONZALEZ Jose D (2012). Nutritional balance of corn chips (descriptive statistics) (2e). Journal of Knowledge Advancement & Integration (ISSN 1177-4576), 2012, pages 275-278.]

Table of Contents

BNI of corn chips (description)

BNI of corn chips (description)

Perezgonzalez assessed the nutritional balance of corn chips⁶ in 2012², as part of a research on the nutritional composition of snacks 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

Corn chip products appeared as moderately unbalanced⁷, on average. The distribution of nutritional balance, as shown in illustration 1, clustered between BNI 40 and BNI 80, with the median located at BNI 59.22. There was a slight skewness towards lower levels of unbalance (mean=BNI 58.12, zSkew=-0.98). Indeed, the 68% of products in the middle of the distribution had a nutritional balance located between BNI 40.69 (P₁₆) and BNI 74.59 (P₈₄), so that the mean was slightly off-centered towards the 16^th percentile.

Above nutritional pattern was almost similar under WHO's recommended dietary intakes (RDIs) but appeared slightly less unbalanced under US's, Australia's and UK's RDIs. The overall shape of the distributions was also similar under BNI's and WHO's standards, on the one hand, and under US's, Australia's and UK's standards, on the other.

Illustration 1: Food's nutritional balance distribution
		International RDIs
Scale	BNI	WHO	US/CAN	AUS/NZ	UK
=0
>0
≥10					3
≥20	2	3	4	3	9
≥30	2	5	8	8	1
≥40	7	4	7	8	6
≥50	8	7	13	13	13
≥60	6	6	5	5	5
≥70	12	12
≥80
≥90
≥100
≥110
≥120
≥130
≥140
≥150
≥160
≥170
≥180
≥190
≥200

Median	59.22	59.22	49.22	49.22	49.22
SPR	16.95	18.53	14.08	13.57	19.09
P₁₆	40.69	37.54	31.23	32.24	21.20
P₈₄	74.59	74.59	59.38	59.38	59.38
RSkew	-1.58	-3.16	-3.92	-3.41	-8.93

Mean	58.12	57.21	46.09	46.65	43.73
StDev	14.85	15.87	12.89	12.23	15.62
zSkew	-0.98	-1.00	-1.41	-1.36	-1.25
zKurt	-1.31	-1.46	-1.19	-1.16	-1.82

dietBNI

As part of a hypothetical diet where all products contribute the same weight of chips, the resulting nutritional composition of such diet would still be moderately unbalanced (dietBNI 49.44), although it would "benefit" sensibly under UK's RDIs, resulting in a slightly unbalanced diet⁷ (27.37).

Illustration 2: Diet's nutritional balance (corn chips)
Protein	Carbs	Sugar	Fat	Sat.fat	Fiber	Sodium
7.3	58.9	2.5	25.2	8.7	3.7*	0.590
International RDIs		BNI	WHO	US/CAN	AUS/NZ	UK
(diet, fiber unest.)		57.78	54.58	42.21	42.47	37.93
(diet, fiber est.*)		49.44	46.98	36.18	36.71	27.37
(Values per 100g; fiber content estimated from Doritos Burn²)*

Methods

Research approach

Exploratory study for mapping the nutritional balance of corn chips⁶ in New Zealand.

Sample

Stratified sample of 37 corn chip products², including generic and proprietary brands, diverse flavors and other relevant categories. Notwithstanding this, the actual products were collected in a convenient manner from three major national supermarket chains. The final sample covered the population of corn chip products available in those supermarkets.

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 a corn-chip-based diet (dietBNI).

Materials & analysis

Relevant data were collated after purchasing the food products or by capturing such information from the 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, 2011¹). Inconsistently reported data for fiber was estimated for the aggregated variable dietBNI from 'Doritos Burn', the product with the lowest fiber content (see Perezgonzalez, 2012 ²).

SPSS-v18 was used for the computation of variables, including BNI and international indexes, and for descriptive statistical analyses.

References

1. PEREZGONZALEZ Jose D (2011). Balanced Nutrition Index™ (BNI™). Journal of Knowledge Advancement & Integration (ISSN 1177-4576), 2011, pages 20-21.

2. PEREZGONZALEZ Jose D (2012a). Corn utopia. The Balanced Nutrition Index (ISSN 1177-8849), 2012, issue 6.

3. PEREZGONZALEZ Jose D (2012b). Nutritional balance of corn chips (descriptive statistics). Journal of Knowledge Advancement & Integration (ISSN 1177-4576), 2012, pages 255-258.

+++ Notes +++

4. The third edition adds more statistics and standardizes the illustrations.

5. This second edition updates the previous edition³ by removing a food product which did not pertain to this sample and re-calculating all results, as appropriate.

6. Includes both corn chips and tortilla chips. Thus, they can be defined as thin shapes of pressed cornmeal (usually cut into triangles or circles), and then oven-baked or deep-fried.

7. When interpreting the BNI as 0 = balanced, 1-29 = slightly unbalanced, 30-59 = moderately unbalanced, 60-99 = highly unbalanced, ≥100 = extremely unbalanced.

Want to know more?

BNI analysis of individual corn chip products: You can access either the BNI™ database or the 'BNI™ journal (2012, issue 6) - Corn utopia' for individual nutrition analyses of each food product in the sample.
Wiki of Science - Nutritional balance of corn chips (further knowledge): Two Wiki of Science pages provide further introductory and inferential information about the nutritional balance of corn chips.
Wiki of Science - Nutritional balance of foods: This Wiki of Science page collates information about several foods on a single page and provides useful links to the appropriate files.

Outdated versions

PEREZGONZALEZ Jose D (2012). Nutritional balance of corn chips (descriptive statistics). Journal of Knowledge Advancement & Integration (ISSN 1177-4576), 2012, pages 255-258.