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What Happened to Lunch? Dietary Intakes of 4‐13 Year Old Lunch Consumers and Non‐Consumers in the United States
Author(s) -
Mathias Kevin,
Jacquier Emma,
Eldridge Alison
Publication year - 2015
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.29.1_supplement.587.10
Subject(s) - meal , calorie , environmental health , medicine , food science , consumption (sociology) , advertising , biology , business , social science , sociology , endocrinology
Dietary behavior studies relating meal patterns to dietary intake have primarily focused on skipping breakfast and consumption of snacks. Many papers have also been written about the dietary quality of the National School Lunch Program, but no previous study has investigated the percentage of children skipping lunch on weekends versus weekdays or if dietary intakes differ by lunch consumption status. For this analysis, the NHANES 2009‐2012 surveys were combined into a sample of 3,647 children 4‐13 years old. The first day 24hr recall was used to assess dietary intakes. Lunch consumption status was self‐reported by the children or their proxy. The results show that on weekdays 7% of 4‐8 year olds skipped lunch and 13% on weekends. For 9‐13 year olds, more distinct differences were observed between boys and girls. On weekdays 12% of 9‐13 year old boys skipped lunch as compared to 17% on weekends, whereas, on weekdays 19% of 9‐13 year old girls skipped lunch as compared to 20% on weekends. Differences in the top sources of calories were shown between lunch consumers and lunch skippers. For both 4‐8 and 9‐13 year olds, the largest contributor of calories was mixed dishes for lunch consumers and savory snacks/sweets for children skipping lunch. Milk/dairy foods were also shown to contribute differently to the diets of lunch consumers and lunch skippers, with milk/dairy among the top 5 sources for lunch consumers and beverages (e.g., 100% juice, sweetened beverages, and coffee/tea) among the top 5 sources for lunch skippers. These results identify a new and potentially less healthful dietary behavior associated with skipping lunch among a relatively high percentage of children in the United States.