As students move from childhood to adolescence, their consumption of breakfast, fruits, vegetables, and milk decreases while their soft drink consumption increases, according to a new longitudinal study.
The study tracked the dietary intake of 291 students during the third, fifth, and eighth grades in public schools in Minnesota. In each grade, the students were asked to recall the quantities of foods and beverages they had consumed during the previous 24 hours.
In the third grade, 99 percent of the students said they ate breakfast, but by the eighth grade only 85 percent said they ate breakfast. Fruit and vegetable consumption also fell dramatically between the third and eighth grades. Less than two-thirds of the students in the third grade ate at least a quarter cup of fruit, and less than 60 percent ate at least a quarter cup of vegetables during the previous day. By the eighth grade, only 37 percent reported eating fruits and only 42 percent reported eating vegetables.
During the same time period, the proportion of the students who consumed soft drinks nearly tripled while the proportion that drank milk and fruit juice dropped. Milk and fruit juice consumption declined most significantly between the fifth and eighth grades. In the third grade, the students drank milk 2.5 times per day, compared to 1.9 times per day in the eighth grade.
Surprisingly, the students' consumption of high-fat sweet snacks and fast food did not change significantly, and consumption of high-fat salty snacks was significantly lower in the eighth grade than in the third and fifth grades. The researchers report their findings in the March/April issue of the American Journal of Health Promotion.
"This study gives us important insights into how children's and adolescents' eating behaviors change over time," said lead author Leslie A. Lytle, PhD, RD, of the Division of Epidemiology in the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. "Unfortunately, the changes we found were toward less healthful diets. These findings suggest that we need to pay more attention to nutrition education in the elementary and middle school years and to providing environments that support young people's choice of healthful foods."
The research was conducted as part of the Child and Adolescent Trial for Cardiovascular Health (CATCH), a school-based health promotion intervention study supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
The American Journal of Health Promotion is a bimonthly peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the field of health promotion. For information about the journal call 248-682-0707 or visit the journal's website at www.healthpromotionjournal.com.
Posted by the Center for the Advancement of Health http://www.cfah.org. For information about the Center, call Petrina Chong, pchong@cfah.org; 202-387-2829.
Journal
American Journal of Health Promotion