Evaluation of daily fruit and vegetable consumption by students’ youth

Abstract

Vegetables and fruit make up 50 % of the recommended in Ukraine healthy daily diet. Sufficient consumption of their various kinds provides us with all required for the human body nutrients. A great variety of these food kinds in Ukraine offers the possibility of wide choice according to the taste and financial preferences of all population groups, including students’youth. Insufficient consumption or complete deficiency of some vegetables or fruit in the students’ diet disregards intake of all essential nutrients: vitamins, food fibers and low glycemic index carbohydrates in particular. Aim: evaluation of fruit and vegetables daily consumption, including the preserved ones, in order to correct the students’youth diet. Materials and methods: using the questionnaire [7] authors collected the data and evaluated the results on the medical students’diet. Participation in the survey was voluntary, with the previous consent of the respondents. The sample contains 858 respondents, 570 females and 288 males, aged from 18 to 25, representing the 2nd, 4th and 6th study years’students of the O. Bogomolets National medical university. The sample was randomly selected. Results: the article represents the results of comparative evaluation of the real vegetable - fruit daily consumption, including preserved food, regarding the recommended data. The authors estimated daily consumption of the following vegetables and fruit: potatoes, cabbage, beets, carrots, apples, pears and citrus fruit. The following scale was used for evaluation of the consumption of potatoes: “I don’t consume potatoes”, “I consume less than 100 g daily”, “I consume 100-250 g daily”; cabbage, beets and carrots: “I don’t consume them”, “I consume less than 200 g daily”, “I consume 200-300 g daily”, “I consume more than 300 g daily”; apples, pears and citrus fruit: “I don’t consume them”, “I consume less than 200 g daily”, “I consume 200-400 g daily”, “I consume more than 400 g daily”. The consumption of preserved vegetables and fruit was evaluated by the scale: “I don’t consume them”, “I consume not more than 100 g daily”, “I consume 100-200 g daily”. The authors established that half of all respondents consume traditional for the Ukrainians vegetables (cabbage, carrots and beets) according to the dietary recommendations, no dependence on the gender or study course revealed. One fifth of the male respondents and one tenth of female ones don’t consume cabbage and carrots, no dependence on the study year established; one third don’t consume the beets. Half of the surveyed consume not more than 100 g of potatoes, with no dependence on gender and study year. A third of the respondents consume daily 100-250 g of potatoes, a tenth of them don’t consume potatoes at all. Half of the surveyed daily consume apples (200 g), one third of the respondents consume more than 200 g, no dependence on the gender and study course established; one tenth of male and one twentieth of female respondents don’t consume apples at all. A third of the respondents daily consume citrus fruit in quantity which doesn’t exceed 200 g and another third don’t consume them. One fifth of respondents consume pears (not more than 200 g). About half of the surveyed males and females don’t consume pears. At the same time, more than half of the respondents consume preserved vegetables and fruit, with no dependence on the gender and study year. One fifth of male and more than one fifth of female respondents daily consume 100-200 g of preserved products. Conclusions. The results evidence that 50 % of students’diets don’t correspond to the national nutritional recommendations according to the products daily intake and variety of the consumed products. 10 % of respondents don’t consume vegetables and fruit, no dependence on the gender and study year established. More than 50 % of the respondents consume home-made preserved vegetables and fruit. Daily evaluation of vegetable and fruit consumption reveals insufficient consumption of the products, which represents a risk factor of vitamin and microelement deficiency, polynutrient deficiency and, consequently, alimentary-dependent diseases of students’ youth. The obtained data require for individual correction of essential nutrients in the students’ dietary ratios. Key Words: questionnaire, ratio, daily consumption, vegetables, fruit, alimentary diseases, correction, students’ youth.