Situación alimentaria de escolares en relación con su condición social: Córdoba, República Argentina / Food consumption of school children regarding their social condition: Córdoba, Republic of Argentina

RESUMO

This report reveals the daily consumption of nourishing food in primary school children coming from the north of C ordoba, Argentina, in relationship with their socio economic status, SES. Four categories were determined according to the place the chief support of the family occupies in the productive system. A 24 hours recall test was applied to obtain nutritional data as well as the weight and method of measure. Differences among the established categories were pointed out by socioeconomic indicators (P < 0.001). Powder and liquid milk ingesta showed statistic differences (P < 0.005), at the same time, the consumption of this food was poor, and it was not being incorporated into the scholarship's diet. The per-capita proportion of meat ingesta was over 100 g, in the whole group. Difference (P < 0.005) were noticed among the SES when the consumption was over 200 g. The consumption of fruits and vegetables is low. On the contrary, it was shown an increase in cereals and legumes ingesta as the SES decreased (P < 0.005). Analyzing the fitness of the diet it was found that the 53 per cent of SES IV children showed calorie shortage whereas the proteins evaluation revealed excess consumption in the 88 per cent of the studied scholarships. Other deficiencies were also found, such as calcium, riboflavin, thiamine, niacin in the whole group. This study also showed statistic differences with respect to the consumption of energy, calcium and ascorbic acid (P < 0.05)