A Study on Vegetable Intakes and Dietary Habits of Middle School Students in Chungnam

Cho, Hyun Sun; Kim, Myung Hee; Choi, Mi Kyeong

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to provide basic data for nutritional education for juveniles' desirable vegetable intake by analyzing their vegetable intake, dietary habit and nutrient intakes according to gender of middle school students in Chungnam. The average age of the subjects was 15.0, height was 162.5 cm, weight was 53.5 kg and their average BMI was 20.1 kg/m2. The frequency of eating supper in girls was lower than that in boys. Many respondents answered that a meal-time was 10~20 minutes. Without gender difference, more than 90% respondents thought that vegetables were good for health. As for the preference of vegetable, subjects responded, "I am in the middle", "I like them", "I dislike them", "I like them very much", and "I dislike them very much" in order, without gender difference. The frequent eaten leaf vegetable was Chinese cabbage, the frequent eaten fruit vegetable was cucumber, and the frequent eaten root vegetable was radish. The favorite leaf vegetable was lettuce, the favorite fruit vegetable was corn, and the favorite root vegetable was sweet potato. The preference degrees of taro and ginger were very low. The reasons why they liked a vegetable were that it was delicious and they ate it at home often. In addition, the reason why they disliked vegetables was that they are untasty in flavor or texture and it showed that many students had a prejudice that vegetables were untasty. The intakes of plant protein, dietary fiber, ash and INQs of dietary fiber, calcium, vitamin C, folate, vitamin E in the group with high preference of vegetables were significantly higher than those of low preference group. The study results indicate that intake frequency and preference of root vegetables in juveniles are low and the major reasons of these results are taste and eating experience of vegetables. In addition, the intake amounts of dietary fiber and folate are poor in the subjects with low preference of vegetables. Therefore, families and schools should make efforts that juveniles can recognize the importance of vegetable intake and select various vegetables properly through the development of cooking methods and systematic nutrition education.