Do our students eat well?

What types of foods do you eat? How often should you eat during the day? We made our students answer these two basic questions to let us know if their eating habits are correct. To this end, our students wrote down everything they ate for a week: type of food, grams, calories and how often they ate daily. This study was carried out with a sample of 52 students aged between 15 and 16. We understand the difficulty of this task. It is not easy to calculate exactly how many grams of each type of food are eaten for each meal, so these calculations were figured out by our students, getting perhaps a considerable margin of error, bigger than expected. In any case, we accomplished the main aim of this study, which was raising awareness among our students; for instance, they learnt that it is more convenient to eat five times a day in small quantities rather than doing it just twice in bigger amounts. They also know now how important it is to follow a balanced diet in terms of nutrients, i.e., 60% carbohydrate, 25% fat and 15% protein.

What are our students like? Boys 58 kg. 171 cm. 15.
66 + (13.75 x P) + (5 x A) (6.75 x E).

1617 kcal.

Weight Height Age Basal Metabol ism

Girls 50 kg. 160 cm. 15.

655 + (9.5 x P) + (1.8 + A) (4.6 x E).

1220 kcal.

Basal Metabolism is the necessary energy for living without making any effort or task. But, if we walk, run, think, play the guitar, eat we will need more energy. So, Basal Metabolism is not enough information to know how much energy our body needs. Example of a female student who accomplishes these activities along the day
Activity Sentada en clase Study Foods Voley De pie Walk Trabajos Hour 5 3 2 1 2 1 1 X X X X X X X X Kcal/min/ kg 0.029 0.029 0.023 0.050 0.026 0.080 0.060 X X X X X X X X Weigt 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 X X X X X X X X MB/2 4 50,83 50,83 50,83 50,83 50,83 50,83 50,83 = = = = = = = = Total 368,51 75 221,11 05 116,90 9 127,07 5 132,15 8 203,32 152,49

domsticos Play Piano Sleep

1 8 24

X X

0.040 0.016

X X

50 50

X X

50,83 50,83

= =

101,66 325,31 2 1748,5 52 Chart number 1

She has consumed 1750 Kcal, but as we can see on the chart below the average amount of calories taken by our female students is 2320 kcal. That means that the girl taken as an example ingests more calories than she consumes. She should eat less or take more sport to burn some more calories.

Men

Breakfast 19% Lunch 30% Dinner 31% Other Moments 18%

Women

Breakfast 31 % Lunch 33% Dinner 22 % Other Moments 15 %

MEN FOOD KC al Breakfast 46 0 Lunch 73 1 Dinner 75 0 WOMEN Other 44 FOOD KC Moments 0 al TOTAL 24 Breakfast 71 00 3 Lunch 77 4 Dinner 50 0 Other 34 Moments 5 TOTAL 23 20

% 19 30 31 18 % 10 31 0 33 22 15 10 0

Ideal %

Breakfast 25% Lunch 35% Dinner 25% Other Moments 15%

Conclusions: 1. Our pupils ingest an amount of calories which is higher than the calories they consume. The problem has nothing to do with the amount of food they take, but with the little exercise they take ( See chart number 1). 2. The way they distribute the amount of food along the day is not completely right, but it adjusts to the standard. 3. The percentage of nutrients taken is right, because more than half of the calories ingested come from Carbohydrates; a fourth comes from Fat and a bit less than the fourth part from Protein.
DISTRIBUTION ALONG THE DAY MEALS IDEAL BOYS GIRLS Breakfast 25 % 19 % 31 % Lunch 35 % 30 % 33 % Dinner 25 % 31 % 22 % Other 15 % 18 % 15 % Meals or snacks REPARTO POR NUTRIENTES Carbohydrates 60 % Lipids or Fat 25 % Protein 15 %