Adolescents Snacks: Fruit and Vegetable Consumption
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The snack meal is defined as the consumption of food ingested in addition to the three main
meals, and thereby contributing to additional calories. Increasing the number of snacks may be beneficial,
as long as the energy balance is maintained, and are frequently mentioned as an opportunity to increase
fruit consumption, however, carbohydrates and added sugars tend to be over-consumed at snacking
occasions.The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between the prevalence of snack
consumption and fruits and vegetables intake in adolescents.
A sample of 70 adolescents between 12 and 19 years was studied. The
adolescents were assessed for snacks consumption through the three day food diary method and their
anthropometric data were objectively measured. Data analysis was performed with the ordinal Spearman
correlation test, with a 95% significance, using the SPSS 22.0.
Adolescents had a mean of 4.4 meals and 1.5 snacks a day. There was a
positive correlation between fruit and vegetables consumption and the prevalence of snacks, the same
was observed for the total number of meals and the consumption of vegetables. These results were in
agreement to what has been shown by Marques Vidal et al (2006), also regarding Portuguese
adolescents.
These results suggest that the higher the prevalence of snack consumption, the greater the
consumption of fruits and vegetables, signifying a positive relation between snacking and a healthy diet.