Volume : 3, Issue : 2, February - 2014

Assessment of Dietary Behavior AAssessment of Dietary Behavior Among 10–12 Years old School Childrenmong – Years old

B. P. Sudha

Abstract :

India has more children of school age than china (Huebler, 2007). Approximately 190 million of the growing population consists of school going children in India (Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, 2005). Good dietary behaviour helps to maintain the children’s health and also minimize the nutritional deficiency diseases among children. To know the dietary behaviour, 150 children (10- 12 years) were selected from Mayapandeeswari Middle School, in Theni district. A questionnaire was structured to collect the information like socio-economic background, food consumption frequency and dietary survey (24 hours recall for 3 days) of the respondents. The percentage of deficit /excess of the nutrients consumed by the respondents were also calculated. The mean consumption of the nutrients reported that, energy, carbohydrate, protein, fat, calcium, iron, β-carotene, thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, folic acid and Vitamin C intake were less than the RDA. Inadequate intake of essential nutrients for long time will lead to nutritional deficiency diseases.