Dietary Pattern of Children with an Unbalanced Diet in School Feeding

Kim, Young Hee; Seo, Jung Sook

Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate the dietary pattern of children with unbalanced diet in school feeding. Children who eat only what they like among elementary school students were selected for this survey. The general characteristics, nutrition knowledge, eating behavior, food intake frequencies and food preferences of the subjects were investigated compared with control group. The subjects were consisted of a total of 160 children : 92 male students(unbalanced-diet group, 46; control group, 46), and 68 female students(unbalanced-diet group, 34; control group, 34). There was no significant difference in nutrition knowledge between the unbalanced-diet group and the control group. Dietary behavior of control group turned out to be more desirable than that of the unbalanced-diet group. In addition, 68.7% of the unbalanced-diet group and 13.8% of the control group hated to eat vegetables. The result of food intake frequency indicates that the control group turned out to be higher in their intake of fish, cereals, vegetables, seaweeds, fats & oils and Kimchi compared with unbalanced-diet group. Intake frequency of minerals and vitamins of the control group was higher than that of the unbalanced-diet group. On the other hand, the unbalanced-diet group turned out to be higher in sugar intake. Children showed the greatest preference of fruits. The unbalanced group turned out to prefer sugar and beverages more than the control group. These results suggest that the desirable dietary habits of children should be formed with the help of nutrition education designed for behavior modification.