[Nutritional status and food consumption among students admitted to nutrition and dietetics programs in the National...

Objective To determine the nutritional status and some food intake characteristics of first semester nutritional science students. Methods Observational, descriptive and transversal study. Sample of 70 students. A survey was conducted to determine the food intake characteristics. Anthropometric measures were also taken. Excel, Access 2010 and Epi 2002 were used. Measures of central tendency, stratified by gender and age, were determined. Results According to the BMI measures, approximately three in four students were classified as normal. Malnutrition was more prevalent in men than in women. Around 70 % of the students consumed milk and dairy products, and nearly 61 % consumed meat daily. Roughly half of the students consumed eggs between two and three times a week; only 27 % of the students did so every day. 50 % of the students said they consumed fruit juice daily, and only 37 % of the survey respondents consumed whole fruits with the same frequency. Vegetables were reported as less consumed. About 10 % of the students consumed low nutrient density food (soft drinks, candies and excess fat in the diet) daily. 5 % of the students consumed fast food. Conclusion The students had inappropriate diet and eating habits. This is probably related to the prevalence of malnutrition found.