Food habits in adolescents: analysis of the current state

Abstract

The purpose of the work was to identify the main trends and problems in the nutrition of teenagers, as well as factors that influence the formation of their eating behavior, in particular, the relationship and peculiarities of the perception of school meals. Materials and methods. This sociological study was conducted by online surveying of middle-aged and older schoolchildren in order to analyze their eating habits and identify the main factors that influence them. 5,685 children in different regions of Ukraine took part in the study, which made it possible to obtain representative data on the eating behavior of adolescents. The results showed that the majority of children have a varied diet outside the educational institution in terms of food composition and frequency of food consumption. However, home nutrition is often irregular and includes a large number of snacks rich in sugar and fat. Most children are used to consuming food while working with computers and gadgets, consuming unhealthy foods, which indicates the need for educational work on balanced nutrition. Despite the high awareness of the risks of improper nutrition, most children do not follow the rules of healthy eating due to lack of motivation and lack of awareness of health risks. School meals are not popular among older students. The popularity of school canteens and buffets decreases with age: older students more often choose brought food or refuse school meals altogether. Almost half of the children (45.97%) do not like the food in the school canteen. Most children bring food from home, which often consists of high-carbohydrate and high-fat foods, snacks and sweets. This negatively affects their health and contributes to the development of food-dependent diseases. The main reasons for the low popularity of school meals are the unusualness of the dishes (15.6%), economic factors (17.9%), and the unfashionability of visiting the canteen (23.2%), which indicates the need to adapt the school menu to the tastes and preferences of children. Most teenagers receive knowledge about healthy eating from their parents (74.66%), the most frequent obstacles to healthy eating are lack of free time (12.93%) and desire (21.27%), and the main motives are the desire to avoid diseases (64.66%) and look good (54.19%). Conclusions. The current state of eating habits and eating behavior of adolescents is determined, which is the basis for the development and implementation of educational programs on balanced nutrition, adaptation of the school menu to the tastes and preferences of children, as well as measures to increase motivation to adhere to the principles of healthy eating in school and extracurricular environments.