Alimentação de estudantes ingressantes no curso de Nutrição de uma Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul

Abstract

Healthy eating habits are essential for promoting and maintaining health. Among young people, however, there has been a diet characterized by high consumption of snacks and processed products and low consumption of fruits, vegetables and vegetables. The objective of this study was to verify the association between the quality of food and the lifestyle of incoming students in the course of nutrition and some socioeconomic and demographic characteristics. The cross- sectional study included as a population consisted of entry-level nutrition students from a federal university located in the south of Brazil. The instrument contained two parts: the first was the questionnaire "How is your food?", elaborated by the Brazilian Ministry of Health, which classifies the food intake quality in good, fair and poor; the second had demographic and socioeconomic questions . Statistical analyses were done by frequency and Qui-square test. 39 students answered the questionnaire.No association was found between food intake quality and moving to another city, type of housing type, nor between dietary habits and these same characteristics. The rating was 82.05% regular and 17.95% bad. 89.74% of students consume fruit every day, but only 15.38% reach the recommendation. 76.93% consume vegetables daily, but only 12.82% reach the recommendation. 12.82% consume processed food every day and 20.51% read the nutrition rolls. 84.62% of the students are female, 58.97% of the students came from other cities or states and 15.38% live alone; 38.46% received up to 1,5 minimum wages. Although the study did not find an association between dietary habits and demographic characteristics, it showed that food intake needs improvements to suit the recommendations. The study suggests that is necessary to study another variables so that the phenomenon can be better understood.