Nutritional epidemiology during school age.

Nutritional research covers different fields, two of which are of particular interest: evaluation of the nutritional status, and epidemiology of food consumption. For many years, studies in these fields have been promoted by our research group, which bases its methodology on anthropometric measurements, bioelectrical impedance measurements, and check of nutritional habits. Our studies involve more than 2500 subjects from pre-school age to adolescence. This work represents the basis for an educational approach with the ultimate aim of improving life styles. One of our first studies on school meals during nursery period and composition and application of "dietary tables" showed inadequacies of energy intakes and macronutrients distribution. In another study, aimed to evaluate the intake of soluble sugars, more than 2/3 of participating school children were found to consume more than 70 g of soluble sugars per day, while 10% of them exceeded 150 g/day. Results of the following study, in which special attention was given to salted and sweet snacks, showed that snacks can account for 34% of the total daily energy intake; although its adequacy, the energy distribution per macronutrients showed a clear imbalance. As for adolescence, a very critical age, the evaluation of weight self-perception revealed that only 62% of them had a correct perception of their weight. This research also devoted special attention to home prepared breakfast, which is consumed by the vast majority of enrolled subjects, although only rarely it is nutritionally adequate. A double age-related trend could thus be drawn: on one side, there is the tendency of the "overweight status" to decrease (from a starting-point of about 20%); on the other side, this tendency is unfortunately compensated by the increasing trend of "obesity" (which almost reaches 30%).