To examine the adequacy and inadequacy of dietary patterns in pregnant women for which information is absolutely lacking.

Diet was assessed by a validated, self-administered diet history questionnaire (DHQ). Dietary patterns were extracted from the intake of thirty-three food groups (g/4184 kJ (1000 kcal)), which were summarized from 147 foods assessed with the DHQ, by cluster analysis. Nutritional inadequacy for selected twenty nutrients in each dietary pattern was examined using the reference values given in the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI) for Japanese as the temporal gold standard.

Japan.

Nine hundred and ninety-seven pregnant Japanese women aged 18–43 years.

The three dietary patterns identified were labelled as ‘meat and eggs’ (n 423), ‘wheat products’ (n 371) and ‘rice, fish and vegetables’ (n 203). The ‘rice, fish and vegetables’ pattern characterized by high intake of rice, vegetables, potatoes, pulses, fruits, seaweed, fish and miso soup showed significantly the lowest prevalence of inadequate intake for fifteen nutrients and significantly the highest prevalence of inadequate sodium intake. In contrast, the ‘wheat products’ pattern characterized by high intake of bread, noodles, confectioneries and soft drinks showed the highest prevalence of inadequate intake for fourteen nutrients. The median number of nutrients not meeting the DRI as a marker of overall nutritional inadequacy was eight in the ‘rice, fish and vegetables’ pattern. It was significantly lower at ten in the ‘meat and eggs’ and eleven in the ‘wheat products’ patterns (P < 0·001).

In pregnant Japanese women, the dietary pattern high in rice, fish, vegetables, fruit and some others showed a better profile of nutritional adequacy except for sodium.