How Accurately Can We Recall the Timing of Food Intake? A Comparison of Food Times from Recall-Based Survey Questions and Daily Food Records

BACKGROUND: There currently are no standard, low-cost, and validated methods to assess the timing of food intake. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to validate simple, recall-based questions that can characterize food timing in free-living populations. METHODS: The concordance between recall-based survey questions and food times estimated from multiple daily food records was assessed in 249 generally healthy, free-living adults from the Shift Work, Heredity, Insulin, and Food Timing (SHIFT) Study. At baseline, participants were asked: “At what time do you first start and stop eating on weekdays/workdays and weekends/non-workdays?” and “At what time do you have your main meal on weekdays/workdays and weekends/non-workdays?” Participants were then asked to complete ≤14 d of food records noting the start time of each eating occasion. The timing of the first, last, and main (largest percentage calories) eating occasions were determined from food records. Wilcoxon matched pairs signed rank and Kendall's coefficient of concordance were used to compare differences and determine agreements between the methods for these food timing parameters, as well as for the midpoint between first and last eating occasion. RESULTS: Eating occasions on work and free days showed significant agreements between the 2 methods, except for the main eating occasion on free days. Significant agreements were generally modest and ranged from 0.16 (workdays main eating occasion) to 0.45 (workdays first eating occasion). Generally, times based on recall were later than those estimated from food records, and the differences in estimated times were smaller on workdays compared with free days, and smaller for the first compared with the last eating occasion. Main eating occasions from food records often varied between lunch and dinner times, contributing to low concordance with recalled times. CONCLUSIONS: Modest agreements were found between food times derived from simple, recall-based survey questions and food times estimated from multiple-day food records. Single administration of these questions can effectively characterize the overall timing of eating occasions within a population for chrononutrition research purposes.