Análise do consumo diário de açúcares de adição entre pré-escolares do município de Cuité - PB.

Abstract

Preschool-age children present particularities with regard to food and this period is marked by the growth, development, physiological, biological vulnerability and construction of eating habits. Therefore, there is need for an adequate nutritional intake at that stage. Due to changes in dietary habits, consumption of foods containing high amounts of added sugar in childhood is increasing in large proportion, and may bring harm to the health of these children. The objective of this research was to evaluate the added sugar consumption among preschoolers of the municipality of Cuité-PB. For analysis of eating habits, a questionnaire was applied on consumption of processed foods, fruits and vegetables. For quantitative analysis of added sugar consumption, applied a reminder 24 hours, where they were described the food consumption of the preschoolers, referring to the previous day, with the aid of application "Desrotulando", for analysis and quantification the sugars in foods. For assessment of nutritional status were measured body weight and height measurements. Nutritional status was classified according to levels of weight for age (P/I), weight-for-stature (P/E), height for age (E/I) and body mass index-BMI for age. In relation to sugar consumption in addition, it was found that most of the students of the two education networks feature high consumption according to the recommendations. With regard to eating habits, students from both schools have the habit of consuming processed foods, such as table sugar, soft drinks, dairy drinks, while the consumption of fruit and vegetables is considered lower. As for the nutritional status of all 30 children evaluated, 53.33% presented nutritional status of eutrophy, however, with a higher prevalence (39%) of overweight in children belonging to public school. It was verified that there was no correlation between the consumption of sugar addition and the nutritional status of pre-school children, considering that 86.66% of eutrophic presented a high consumption of these sugars. Thus, despite the results obtained in this study did not correlate dietary habits with the nutritional status of these children analyzed, it is important to stress the need for a balanced diet and appropriate at that stage preschool with a view that this is a period of formation of eating habits, which may persist throughout life and exaggerated consumption of processed products containing high amount of added sugar in infancy, can result in problems futures, as well as interfere with the quality of the diet of these children, taking them to decrease food intake of higher nutritional quality, considered beneficial to health.