A STUDY TO DETERMINE THE IRANIAN GOVERMENTAL HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS' FOOD HABITS AND THEIR COMPARISON WITH FOOD GUIDE PYRAMID

During the last two decades, attention paid to peoples' food habits and patterns was considered as the most important part within life style. Present century considers life style as the most important factor regarding health promotion and prevention, of disease specifically some chronic ones that involve both industrial and developing countries. An appropriate dietary intake should be considered to all individuals regarding their individual factors such as age, sex, growth stages, of puberty and some other specific conditions such as pregnancy and lactation, which are accompanied by physiologic changes.

Materials and methods: The present study is a cross-sectional study to determine the Iranian high school students' food habits and there comparing with the standard Food Guide Pyramid. Target population is all the high school students and among this population 120 subjects (60 female and 60 male) were randomly selected by cluster sampling and sample volume formula. The instrument for data collection is questionnaire, which included three sections: demographic characteristics, food intake recall, and the frequency of food intake recall in five food groups.

Results: Findings reveal that female and male students were different regarding monthly intake of five food groups but these differences were significant (p<0.05) only in dairy product intake. Also, the comparison between the frequencies of food intakes with food guide pyramid demonstrate that there were differences between each of the five food groups with the food guide pyramid, regarding meat and its alternatives, the differences were less than the recommended number of servings in pyramid and concerning fats and sweets, the differences were more than pyramid.

Discussion: Taking the result into consideration, the importance of public education aiming at modification of current nutritional habits to fit in with a standard food guide pyramid is recommended.