Premium
Contrubution of Snacks to Total Nutrient Intake by Normal and Overweight Puerto Rican Children at Three Different School Levels
Author(s) -
Preston Alan M,
Venegas Heidi,
VelezRodriguez Rose M,
Rodriguez Cindy A,
Rodriguez Natalie
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.27.1_supplement.1060.8
Subject(s) - snacking , overweight , calorie , demography , medicine , obesity , population , environmental health , gerontology , pediatrics , endocrinology , sociology
Snacking is a common practice and depending upon content, can either contribute to or counteract the widespread incidence of our nation's obesity epidemic. The objective of this study is to determine the contribution of snacks to total daily nutrients in a population of normal and overweight children at 3 different school levels, both during week days and weekend days. To this effect, we have performed multiple 24 hr dietary recall interviews with normal weight (N) and overweight (O) (BMI at the 85 th percentile) children in Elementary (E) n = 101, Intermediate (I) n = 116 and High (H) n = 105 schools of metropolitan San Juan, collecting information from week days and from weekend days. E students reported highest rate of snacking, followed by I students with H students having the lowest rate. Weekend snacking was less frequent with E and I children but about the same in H children. Results from macronutrient content show that snacks accounted for 23% of calories for E children, 34% of calories for I children and 28% of calories for H children with O children having slightly higher %'s than N children. Patterns of snacks on weekends closely resembled those of weekdays. Overall, these data provide information that could be used to determine if the content of snacks in our population weighs for or against the overall obesity problem. Financial support: National Research Initiative of the USDA Cooperative State Research Education and Extension Service, Grant number 2003–35200‐13590.