Dietary habits and nutritional profile of school children participating in the school lunch programme

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Date
2000
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Department of Home Science, College of Horticulture, Vellanikkara
Abstract
A study was conducted among the school children (7-9 age group) to find out the food consumption pattern and nutritional status of children who are the beneficiaries of school lunch programme of the state. The socio-economic details inferred through the survey were found to be . satisfactory. Nuclear families with better living conditions and good educational levels of the parents were the main factors observed. Most of the children were completely immunized. Food consumption survey results revealed a dietary pattern of rice, pulses, vegetables and coconut oil. The consumption of green leafy vegetables and fruits by the families was found to be negligible. Dietary profile of school children revealed that the intake of all the food groups except that of flesh foods were below the RDA. But when compared to the control group there was a significant increase in the intake of cereals, pulses, other vegetables, roots and tubers, flesh foods and sugar and jaggery in the experimental group. Dental caries was observed in majority of the children. Anaemia was the most prevalent nutritional deficiency disorder among children. Prevalence of malnutrition as revealed by anthropometric survey indicated that the mean height and weight of children in both control and experimental group was low, when compared with Indian standards. But the difference in . the body weight between the control and experimental group of children were statistically significant. Severe malnutrition was not observed in both groups. From the above observations it can be concluded that there was no incidence of severe grades of malnutrition among children. When compared with Indian . . standard alues, both groups of children were found to have low values. But based on different grades of malnutrition most of the children in experinlental group came under normal nutritional status and grade I malnutrition. But majority of children in the control group where having grade I and grade IT malnutrition. Intake of protein and vitamins such as riboflavin was found to be high in control group when compared to RDA. But in experimental group the intake of retinal and niacin was high when compared to RDA. The intake of all other nutrients were below the RDA in both groups.
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171676
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