Abstract

CASTANOLA, Juana; MAGARINOS, Mirta; ORTIZ, Susana  and  SOCIEDAD ARGENTINA DE PEDIATRIA. Comité Ampliado de Pediatría General Ambulatoria. Patrón de ingesta de vegetales y frutas en adolescentes en el área metropolitana de Buenos Aires. Arch. argent. pediatr. [online]. 2004, vol.102, n.4, pp.265-270. ISSN 0325-0075.

Introduction. An inverse relationship has been shown between a diet based on at least five daily meals of vegetables and fruits and the possibility of suffering some chronic diseases like gut and hormonedependent cancers, as well as heart diseases. In our country, little information exists regarding the intake of vegetables and fruits. Objective. The objective of the present study was to determine the pattern of intake of vegetables and fruits in a population of adolescents in the Metropolitan District of Buenos Aires. Population, material and methods. An observational, descriptive and croos-sectional study, with a randomised, convenience simple, stratisfied according to age. A survey administered by every participating physicians was used. Healthy patients of both genders, aged 10 to 18 years, who attended to routine health follow-up between October 1^st, 2000 and August 31^st, 2001, were included. Patients on special diets within the previous month before the survey were excluded. Analyses were performed with central trend and dispersion measures and results were expressed as percentages. Results. In a sample survey based on the 24 hour ingestion of the previous day, a poor ingestion was observed in the 520 cases, where almost 70% had not ingested any form of vegetables or fruits, around 28% ate only one or two servings/day and hardly 1%, five or more servings. There were no differences related with sex, age and place of attendance (public hospital, health care social service, and private office). Conclusions. According to these data, new studies in this field should be encouraged, projects aimed at collecting better information as well as increasing the consumption of these foods within our population should be proposed.

Keywords : Adolescents; Vegetables and fruits intake; Disease prevention.

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