Fat and Fibre Barometer - designed by Roy Price, Nutritionist and Dietitian

Fat and Fibre Barometer
Answer the following 20 questions about your diet to find out
how well you diet rates for fat and fibre content.
Acknowledgments: This questionnaire and scoring mechanism is based on The Fat and Fibre Barometer which was developed as part of the Beat Diabetes 2 Health Promotion Program (O'Keefe N, Seal J, Butler D). Beat Diabetes 2. Health. Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Curtin University, Western Australia.
Other references:

Question 1.
How many times a week do you eat two or more pieces of fruit a day?

six or more times per week.
three to five times per week.
once or twice a week.
less than once per week.
never, or hardly ever
don't choose, intentionally left blank

Question 2.
When eating cheese, how often do you eat or use reduced-fat cheese in preference to regular cheese?

always.
usually.
occasionally.
rarely.
never
I don't eat cheese

Question 3.
How many days a week do you eat fried food with a batter or bread crumb coating?

four or more days a week.
two to three days per week.
once a week.
less than once per week.
never, or hardly ever.
don't choose, intentionally left blank

Question 4.
How often do you eat vegetables fried or roasted in oil?

always.
usually.
occasionally.
rarely.
never
don't choose, intentionally left blank

Question 5.
When eating bread (as toast, sandwiches, or a snack) how often do you spread butter or margarine on it?

always.
usually.
occasionally.
rarely
never
don't choose, intentionally left blank

Question 6.
How many serves of vegetables do you eat in a typical day? (one serve is equal to one small potato or two table-spoons of vegetables or half a cup of salad vegetables)

five or more serves.
three to four serves
one to two serves
less than one serve a day.
none
don't choose, intentionally left blank

Question 7.
How often do you trim all the visible fat off the meat you eat (OR purchase pre-trimmed meat)?

always
usually.
occasionally
rarely
never/I don't eat meat
don't choose, intentionally left blank

Question 8.
How many times a week do you eat meat pies, pasties or sausage rolls?

three or more times per week.
once or twice per week.
once per two weeks.
less than once per two weeks.
never
don't choose, intentionally left blank

Question 9.
How often do you (or the person who cooks for you) remove the skin from chicken before it is cooked?

always
usually
occasionally
rarely
never
I don't eat chicken

Question 10.
How many days a week do you eat fried potato? (e.g. hot chips or potato crisps)

six or more times per week.
three to five times per week.
once or twice a week.
less than once per week.
never, or hardly ever
don't choose, intentionally left blank

Question 11.
How many days a week do you eat take-away foods such as : fried or BBQ chicken; fish & chips; Chinese; pizza; hamburgers etc?

six or more times per week.
three to five times per week.
once or twice a week.
less than once per week.
never, or hardly ever
don't choose, intentionally left blank

Question 12.
How often do you (or the person who cooks for you) use fat when cooking? (e.g. butter, margarine, oil, lard, dripping, etc).

always
usually
occasionally
rarely
never
don't choose, intentionally left blank

Question 13.
How often do you eat or use wholemeal spaghetti or pasta in preference to regular spaghetti or pasta?

always.
usually.
occasionally.
rarely.
never
I don't eat spaghetti/pasta

Question 14.
How often do you eat or use wholemeal bread in preference to white bread?

always
usually.
occasionally.
rarely.
never
don't choose, intentionally left blank

Question 15.
How many days a week do you eat legumes? (e.g. baked beans, three bean mix, lentils, split peas, dried beans etc)

four or more days per week.
two to three days per week
once per week
less than once per week.
never
don't choose, intentionally left blank

Question 16.
How many days a week do you eat a high fibre breakfast cereal? (e.g. Weet-bix, Albran, untoasted muesli, porridge)

six or more times per week.
three to five times per week.
once or twice a week.
less than once per week.
never, or hardly ever
don't choose, intentionally left blank

Question 17.
How many different types of vegetables would you eat on a typical day?

five or more types
four types
three types
one or two types.
none
don't choose, intentionally left blank

Question 18.
How many days a week do you eat high fat cheeses (e.g. cheddar or creams cheese)?

six or more days per week
three to five days per week
one to two days per week
less than one day a week
never
don't choose, intentionally left blank

Question 19.
How often do you eat or use low fat milk (reduced fat or skim) in preference to whole milk?

always
usually
occasionally
rarely
never
I don't drink milk

Question 20.
How many days a week do you eat processed meats (e.g. Bacon, polony, salami, ham, etc)?

four or more days per week
two to three days per week
once a week
less than once per week
never
don't choose, intentionally left blank

HOW DID YOU SCORE?

Fat AND Fibre
Score
Fibre
Score
Fat
Score

The meaning of your scores for the tests

For each of the tests in the questionnaire above, the highest score possible is 5. Thus, the closer to 5 your score is the better your diet is in:

Fat AND Fibre Score ........fat AND fibre content

Fibre Score.......................fibre content alone

Fat Score..........................fat content alone.

A score of 5 indicates that you are making the best food choices.

A score of 3 or less for any of the tests shows that this is an area of your diet which can be improved.

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To read the 11 steps to reducing your fat intake, CLICK HERE.

Guidelines on increasing your fibre intake.

DRINK PLENTY OF WATER

Although water does not contain fibre, it is an important part of a high fibre diet because dietary fibre without water will have the tendency to absorb water in your bowel and actually CAUSE more problems than it will solve.

Aim to drink 6 to 8 cups (2 litres) of fluid (preferably water) per day.

EAT FOOD HIGH IN FIBRE

Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables: fresh, dried, frozen or canned. Avoid those with added fat.

High fibre fruits include pears, apples, oranges, nectarines, mandarines, dates and rhubarb.

High fibre vegetables include spinach, peas, broccoli, eggplant, cabbage, potatoes and carrot.

Legumes are high in fibre - eat more dried peas, beans and lentils.

Why not add a can of 4 bean mix to soups and stews?

Try baked beans on wholemeal toast for breakfast.

Cook low fat mince with red kidney beans to use in Spaghetti Bolognaise or Chilli Con Carne.

Eat more nuts and seeds - unsalted and dry roasted nuts, seeds such as sunflower and sesame.

Make a mix of your favourite nuts, dried fruit and toasted sesame seeds and use them as nibbles occasionally. Don't overdo the nuts as they are high in Calories.

EAT FOODS MADE FROM WHOLE GRAINS AND WHOLEMEAL FLOURS

Choose wholemeal pasta and brown rice more often. Cook both plain and wholemeal rice or pasta separately and serve both to make an attractive plate display

Use wholemeal bread to make sandwiches with a vegetable or salad filling for extra fibre.

Choose wholewheat or bran breakfast cereals, and slices of fresh fruit for flavour and fibre.

COOKING HINTS

Use kibbled or flaked grains of rice, rye, wheat, oats and barley to make bread or muesli

Use bran in recipes that require breadcrumbs

Use oatbran in recipes that require thickening

Eat raw fruit and vegetables, avoid over cooking and peeling. Steam vegetables to retain flavour and nutrients

REFERENCES:

1. Wright, J.L. & Scott, J.A. (1996). Comparison of the fat and fibre barometer, a short diet questionnaire, to weighed food records and a food frequency questionnaire in nutrition students. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society of Australia, 20, 211.

2. Wright, J.L. & Scott, J.A. (1996). The fat and fibre barometer - a short diet questionnaire. Is it a useful form of dietary assessment? Proceedings of the Dietitians Association of Australia, 16, 68.

3. Janine L. Wright and Jane A. Scott. (2000). The Fat and Fibre Barometer, a short food behaviour questionnaire: reliability, relative validity and utility. Aust J Nutr Diet 2000;57:33-39.
Abstract: The Fat and Fibre Barometer is a brief food behaviour questionnaire which can be self-administered and scored in under ten minutes. This paper reports on the reliability, relative validity and usefulness of the Fat and Fibre Barometer in assessing the habitual fat- and fibre-related food behaviours of 98 adult subjects. The reliability of the Fat and Fibre Barometer scale was determined by Cronbach’s alpha coefficient (a = 0.86) and the subjects completed the Fat and Fibre Barometer on two separate occasions in order to examine test-retest reliability (r = 0.92). Relative validity was determined by comparing Fat and Fibre Barometer scores with the results obtained from a meal-based quantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). Weighted k values indicated fair to moderate agreement between Fat and Fibre Barometer score and the FFQ for percentage of energy from fat and fibre density (g/10 MJ) for both males and females. Pearson correlation coefficients between the Fat and Fibre Barometer score and the FFQ for men and women were 0.37 and 0.63 for total fat; 0.33 and 0.75 for percentage of energy from fat; 0.66 and 0.37 for total fibre; and 0.83 and 0.58 for fibre density (g/10 MJ). The Fat and Fibre Barometer is a short, easy to use dietary assessment tool with good reliability. The accuracy of the Fat and Fibre Barometer is acceptable for educational purposes and the format of the Fat and Fibre Barometer lends itself to providing rapid feedback about increasing intakes of fibre-rich fruit, vegetables and wholegrain cereals, and reducing fat intake. (Aust J Nutr Diet 2000;57:33-39)

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