[Trends in diet and nutritional status in elementary school children in the Tuzla Canton]

Harmonious physical and mental development of children and youngsters depend on the proper diet as one of the basic conditions of growth and development. Feeding to a great extent effects children's health and their future working capability. Feeding process can be perceived through nutritive status whose most valuable and accessive data are on body mass, height and thickness of skin wrinkles. On the basis of BMI, i.e. its centile values, critical values of overweight and obesity can be easily determined. The research aim was to see nutritional status and habits in the secondary school children in Tuzla Canton, then to analyze anthropometric parameters (body weight, body height); to determine BMI values, to standardize curves, to establish obesity frequency in children. The research was performed on the sample of 1544 children both sexes, in the first, third and seventh class involving four Tuzla-Canton municipalities: Tuzla, Lukavac, Gracanica and Kladanj. The research was performed by a questionnaire and anthropometric measurements in respect to IBP (International Biological Programme). Presence of brown bread in the primary school pupils' food is insufficient (5.8-10.7%). They consume fruit and vegetables mostly two times a day, milk is not consumed by 7.5-12.3% of boys and 8.4-28.4% of girls. As for meat, chicken is mostly consumed, fish a little and insufficient. Period between the third and seventh class is characterized by expressive increase in height and weight, what is the outcome of the adolescent jump. BMI value increases with age and exceeds limits of normal weight, thus obesity increases with age. In the seventh class obesity is present in 48.35% of boys and in 30.77% of girls. The above discussed trends in nutrition and obesity presence as the risk factors, require an urgent pass of the Action Programme for food and feeding on the state level, which would give a special importance to health promotion from this point of view.