The paper addressed the assessment of nutritional patterns of 40-year-old women (n=592), participants of the programme “Prevention of cardiovascular diseases in a selected population from Wrocław”. Information on food intakes were collected using 24–h recall and history of nutrition (among others: usual daily number of meals, consumption frequency of different food products, nutritional preferences). The qualitative analysis of nutritional patterns demonstrated that in 63% of the women examined food intake was highly irregular. A daily distribution of meals was characterized by shifting the time of their consumption to late afternoon or evening hours. In the average food ration, energy derived from fat, protein and carbohydrates accounted for 32.9%, 13.9% and 53.2%, respectively. It was shown that the daily food rations of women were inadequately low in cereal products (80% of the recommended level), milk and dietary products (66%), potatoes (61%) as well as fruit and vegetables (86%).