[Eating habits of the youth from Ruda Slaska]

Introduction: In recent years, interests on dietary and health food have grown considerably. Nutritional knowledge and eating habits determined in the youth have an impact on the health condition in adulthood. The aim: To evaluate the eating habits in the population of young people from Silesian province.

Materials and methods: The anonymous questionnaire survey was conducted in the group of high school students aged 17-21 years coming from Silesian province, randomly chosen from high schools in Ruda Slaska. The study group consisted of 262 students, 157 (59,9%) women and 105 (40,1%) men. The student`s participation in the study was voluntary.

Results: The analysis showed that as many as 40% of high school students never eat regularly and eating of regular meals reported only 11,5%. Less than a half (46,9%) of participants eat breakfast every day. The most commonly consumed meals was lunch (n = 217; 82,8%) and dinner (n = 143; 54,6%). The vast majority of students (77,5%) didn't know the correct classification of the feeding pyramid floors. Moreover, in more than a half of young women (54,8%) and men (52,4%) the body mass deficiency was revealed (BMI<18kg/m2).

Conclusions: The study showed abnormal nutritional behavior of high school youth. Therefore, there is a need to conduct activities under health prevention, which improve the eating habits of young people.