[The assessment of food intake and declared satisfaction in medical students]

Proper nutrition is one of the basic factors of the external environment which substantially influence the assurance and upkeep of a one's good state of health until old age. For students of medicine, i.e. prospective doctors, acquisition of knowledge and clinical experience should be accompanied by raising qualifications in the field of preventive treatment so that in future they can not only cure but also promote health. The aim of the present study was to analyse students' nutrition habits and to evaluate the declared satisfaction with the way of feeding. In preparation of the present paper the author used anonymous questionnaire method employing an inquiry form. The research included 416 students of the 4th and 5th years of study of the Medicine Department and 3rd and 4th year students of the Stomatology Division in 2001-2002 years. In the female group one could observe a larger consumption of vegetables and fruit, dairy products, poultry, fish and seeds of leguminous plants. Men more often eat animal fat and red meat. The analysis of the number of meals eaten shows that majority of women eat only one hot meal a day and do not eat supper. Whereas men twice as often do not eat breakfasts, they eat two or more hot meals a day and 70% of them declare they eat supper. Every second questioned person eats sweetmeats even several times a day, and only 7.7% of the population does not have the habit of intermittent eating. Analysis of the research material allowed to draw the following conclusions: 1. There is a statistically significant interdependence between the amount and quality of consumed food and the sex. 2. Women's nutritious habits are more adequate than men's nutrition habits to the dietetic prescriptions of the Institute of Food and Nutrition]. 3. Most of the men are satisfied with their nutritious habits, and the dissatisfied group is dominated by women. 4. The obtained results point to a necessity to work out and implement pro-health education within the field of young people's nutrition.