Abstract
OBJECTIVE: This study aims to describe the energy and nutritional profile of common traditional meals in Arabic Gulf coun-tries and extrapolate the usefulness of evaluat-ing their energy density (ED) level.MATERIALS AND METHODS: An analysis of 155 traditional meals commonly consumed in Arabic Gulf region was performed. The meals were categorized into four ED levels based on energy content as kcal per gram of meal weight. The meals were further classified according to their usual consumption pattern for the analysis. RESULTS: The average percentage of macro -nutrient composition of the meals was 50% as carbohydrate (CHO), 18% as protein and 32% as fat. The majority of the meals were categorized as moderate energy density (MED) (55%) and about 38% of them were categorized as low en-ergy density (LED), whereas less than 8% of the foods were categorized either as very low ener-gy density (VLED) or high energy density (HED). ED value (kcal/g) for sweets (SW) was the high-est (2.9 & PLUSMN; 1.3, Mean & PLUSMN; SD) compared to appetiz-ers (APT) (1.9 & PLUSMN; 0.9), main dishes (MD) (1.7 & PLUSMN; 0.9), and side dishes (SD) (1.8 & PLUSMN; 0.9). A negative cor-relation (p=0.000) between moisture content and ED was found in all meal types. A significant positive correlation (p < 0.05) was found between CHO content and ED of all meal types except MD. Protein and fat contents positively correlat-ed with ED in all meal types.CONCLUSIONS: The study illustrates that the number of HED meals among the common tradi-tional meals in Arabian Gulf region is very lim-ited. The data also suggest that common tradi-tional meals in Arabic Gulf region can be part of a balanced diet to control energy intake if sweets consumption has been avoided.