What’s on our kids’ menu?
Project Manager, Direction Santé Québec, Institut de la statistique du Québec
Rhonda Hanning presented the latest findings on food group and nutrient intakes, frequency of consumption of key foods and food behaviours for children and adolescents. On average, intakes from the four food groups of Canada’s Food Guide do not, or only barely, satisfy minimum recommendations. This especially true for intakes of Vegetables & Fruit and girls’ intake of Milk Products. This means that average intakes of fibre and key nutrients such as folate, calcium and vitamin A are suboptimal. Another area of concern is the intake of “other foods” which provides schoolaged children and adolescents with as much as one-third of the calories, fat and saturated fat and more than 50% of the added sugar in their diets, depending on the survey consulted. Hanning pointed out that as children go through the transition into adolescence, food behaviours shift, and not for the better.
