[The consumption of commercial foods in childhood. The influence of a nutritional information program]

Nutr Hosp. 1992 May-Jun;7(3):191-9.
[Article in Spanish]

Abstract

In order to perform an in-depth study on food standards among school children and evaluate the effect of a nutritional educational programme on eating habits, an analysis was made of the data on the intake of foods over a period of 1,890 days, in 187 school children from 2 schools in the Leganés-Fuenlabrada area. The consumption of global and stratified rations was quantified based on age, commercial foods (buns, fried foods and sweets) accounting for a large part of the children's diet, as well as dairy products, vegetables, fruit and fish, representing basic foodstuffs supposed to form part of their diet. The consumption of these was compared in two stages, before and after receiving the educational programme. It was observed that there was an excessive consumption of foodstuffs considered as lacking in nutritional value (commercial), which increased with age and a lack of natural foods evaluated in their food standards. We also observed that the applied health intervention modified the consumption of these foods recently incorporated into the children's diet, without achieving results with regard to family eating habits.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Child
  • Feeding Behavior*
  • Female
  • Food*
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Nutritional Sciences / education*
  • Program Evaluation
  • Spain