Sustainable diet from the urban Brazilian consumer perspective.

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between sustainability and food, and other possible associations with the socio-demographic characteristics and consumer segmentation, as well as to identify the characteristics of sustainable and unsustainable foods and the sustainable diet concept from a consumer perspective. One hundred and fifty consumers responded a questionnaire with word association, free listing, and sentence completion tasks. A thematic analysis was used to analyze the terms. Sustainability and food were associated with the categories health, food of plant origin, and organic food. Healthy was considered the main characteristic of a sustainable food and degradation to the environment was the characteristic of unsustainable food. Regarding the sustainable diet concept, the terms healthy diet and sustainable production stood out. Individuals of higher educational level associated food and sustainability with natural resource preservation and reuse, while individuals with lower educational levels reported the association with healthy food, nutrition, and food of plant origin. The present findings can help designing strategies to integrate food and nutrition education and formulation of public policies, as well as identifying the target market and understanding how the product or service can meet the consumer's needs.

Sixty years of the National Food Program in Brazil / Sessenta anos do programa nacional de alimentação escolar no Brasil

School meals were introduced in the Brazilian political agenda by a group of scholars known as nutrition scientists' in the 1940s. In 1955, the Campanha de Merenda Escolar, the first official school food program, was stablished, and sixty years after its inception, school food in Brazil stands as a decentralised public policy, providing services to students enrolled in public schools, which involve the Brazilian federal government, twentyseven federative units, and their 5,570 municipalities. Throughout its history, school food has gone through many stages that reflect the social transformations in Brazil: from a campaign to implement school food focused on the problem of malnutrition and the ways to solve it, to the creation of a universal public policy relying on social participation and interface between other modern, democratic, and sustainable policies, establishing a strategy for promoting food and nutrition security, development, and social protection. In this article, the School Food Program is analyzed from the perspective of four basic structures that support it as public policy: the formal structure, consisting of legal milestones that regulated the program; substantive structure, referring to the public and private social actors involved; material structure, regarding the way in which Brazil sponsors the program; and finally, the symbolic structure, consisting of knowledge, values, interests, and rules that legitimatize the policy.

A alimentação escolar foi inserida na agenda pública brasileira por um grupo de intelectuais, os chamados cientistas da nutrição, nos anos 1940. Em 1955 foi decretado o início do Programa de Alimentação com a instituição da Campanha de Merenda Escolar, subordinada ao Ministério da Educação. Após sessenta anos de história, a alimentação escolar no Brasil se destaca como uma política pública descentralizada de atendimento aos estudantes matriculados na rede pública de ensino a qual envolve o governo federal brasileiro, as 27 entidades federativas e seus 5.570 municípios. Ao longo de sua história, a alimentação escolar passou por várias etapas que refletem as transformações sociais do Brasil: partindo de uma campanha para a merenda escolar, focada no problema da desnutrição e nas formas de resolvê-la, passou para a criação de uma política pública universal contando com a participação social e interface entre outras políticas modernas, democráticas e sustentáveis, estabelecendo uma estratégia de promoção da segurança alimentar e nutricional, desenvolvimento e proteção social. Neste artigo, o Programa de Alimentação Escolar é analisado a partir de quatro estruturas básicas que o sustentam como política pública: a estrutura formal, composta pelos marcos legais que normatizam o programa; a substantiva, referente aos atores sociais públicos e privados envolvidos; a material que diz respeito à maneira como o Estado brasileiro financia o programa e, por fim, a estrutura simbólica composta pelos saberes, valores, interesses e regras que legitimam a política.

[Diabetes mellitus risk screening of parents of private school students in the city of Jundiaí, São Paulo, Brazil]. / Rastreamento do risco de desenvolvimento de diabetes mellitus em pais de estudantes de uma escola privada na cidade de Jundiaí, São Paulo.

OBJECTIVE: To screen the risk of developing diabetes mellitus type 2 (DM2) in adult individuals. METHODS: Several risk factors for DM2 (sedentary lifestyle, previous coronary artery disease, hyperglycemia-inducing medications, body mass index [BMI], blood pressure, serum triglyceride, and HDL-cholesterol levels) were assessed in 314 adults as a function of gender and age group. RESULTS: 73.2% of the population had two or more concurrent risk factors and 26.8% had less than two factors. The occurrence of risk factors for DM2 development was observed even in young adults, and the risk factors are likely associated with aging. Differences in risk factors and incidence were observed between men and women in the same age group. CONCLUSION: Regardless the age studied, the most prevalent risk factors associated with DM2 were: BMI, sedentary lifestyle, and reduced serum HDL-cholesterol, which are modifiable, thus increasing the importance of preventive measures. Discrepancies found in prevalent risk factors in men and women also suggest that sociocultural differences influence the risk of developing DM.

Rastreamento do risco de desenvolvimento de diabetes mellitus em pais de estudantes de uma escola privada na cidade de Jundiaí, São Paulo / Diabetes mellitus risk screening of parents of private school students in the city of Jundiaí, São Paulo, Brazil

OBJETIVO: Este trabalho objetivou rastrear em indivíduos adultos o risco de vir a desenvolver diabetes mellitus (DM) tipo 2. MÉTODOS: Diversos fatores de risco para DM (sedentarismo, doença coronariana prévia, uso de medicação hiperglicemiante, índice de massa corporal (IMC), pressão arterial, níveis séricos de triglicerídeos e colesterol HDL-col) foram avaliados em 314 adultos, em funçãodosexoe faixa etária. RESULTADOS: 73,2% da população somou dois ou mais fatores de risco simultaneamente, e 26,8% apresentaram menos de dois fatores. Observou-se a ocorrência de fatores de risco para o desenvolvimento da DM mesmo entre adultos jovens, e a ocorrência dos mesmos tende a estra associada com o avanço da idade. Foram observadas diferenças nos fatores e incidência de risco entre homens e mulheres na mesma faixa etária. CONCLUSÃO: Independentemente da idade estudada, os fatores de risco associados a DM de maior prevalência foram: IMC, sedentarismo e diminuição do HDL-colesterol, os quais podem ser modificáveis, reforçando a importância de medidas preventivas. Divergências encontradas entre os fatores de risco prevalentes em homens e mulheres sugerem também que diferenças socioculturais influenciam o risco de desenvolvimento da DM.

OBJECTIVE: To screen the risk of developing diabetes mellitus type 2 (DM2) in adult individuals. METHODS: Several risk factors for DM2 (sedentary lifestyle, previous coronary artery disease, hyperglycemia-inducing medications, body mass index [BMI], blood pressure, serum triglyceride, and HDL-cholesterol levels) were assessed in 314 adults as a function of gender and age group. RESULTS: 73.2% of the population had two or more concurrent risk factors and 26.8% had less than two factors. The occurrence of risk factors for DM2 development was observed even in young adults, and the risk factors are likely associated with aging. Differences in risk factors and incidence were observed between men and women in the same age group. CONCLUSION: Regardless the age studied, the most prevalent risk factors associated with DM2 were: BMI, sedentary lifestyle, and reduced serum HDL-cholesterol, which are modifiable, thus increasing the importance of preventive measures. Discrepancies found in prevalent risk factors in men and women also suggest that sociocultural differences influence the risk of developing DM.