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Updated: Oct 25, 2025

Methods for Presenting Real-world Objects Under Controlled Laboratory Conditions
Published on: June 21, 2019
Energy, nutrients and food sources in snacks for adolescents and young adults
Tatiane Dos Santos Lopes1, Aline Veroneze de Mello1, Luana Romão Nogueira2
1Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
Objective:
To evaluate associations between snacking and energy, nutrients and food source, and to identify the contribution of snacking across age, sex, weight status and lifestyle behaviors among adolescents and young adults.
Methods:
A sub-sample was calculated from the population-based cross-sectional study 2015-Health Survey of São Paulo (ISA-Capital). The survey "ISA-Nutrição" used a sample of non-institutionalized individuals aged >15 years. For this study, only adolescents (12-18 years old; n=418) and young adults (19-29 years old; n=218) were included. Snacks were identified, and their contribution to energy, nutrients, and food sources were calculated. Descriptive statistics and logistic regressions were used.
Results:
Participants experienced an average of 2.9±0.6 snacking occasions per day. Young adults consumed more energy from morning and night snacks, and adolescents, from afternoon snacks. The top three food sources on snacking contributed to 30.5% of energy: cookies (11.8%), sugar sweetened beverages (9.4%), sweets and other desserts (9.3%). Although results were non-significant, being a female (Odds Ratio [OR] 0.93; 95% confidence interval [95%CI] 0.36-1.49), meeting the physical activity recommendations (OR 0.75; 95%CI 0.25-1.25), and scoring higher for the healthy eating index (OR 0.88; 95%C 0.24-1.52) were all factors related to increased intake of snacks. Alternatively, overweight individuals (OR -0.54; 95%CI -1.00 to -0.08) consumed less snacks.
Conclusions:
Improving the quality of snacks should be considered in behavior-change strategies.
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