Comparative assessment of actual nutrition of preschoolers given uniform approaches to its organization

Background: A healthy balanced diet is the basis for maintaining health at any age. Identification of causes of violations in organization of nutrition of preschoolers remains relevant, since the breach of fundamental principles of healthy eating aggravates negative trends in children’s health.

Objective: To compare actual feeding of children attending two preschools using a single menu.

Materials and methods: In spring–summer 2022, we carried out a comparative analysis of the diet of 99 children aged 3 to 6 years attending two kindergartens using methods of estimation and portion weighing. In total, we examined 20,700 portions and took 41,580 weight measurements. Food intake was then estimated both per child and per preschool. To establish the quality of meals served, we conducted a questionnaire-based survey of parents; the questionnaire was approved by the Local Ethics Committee of the Novokuznetsk State Institute of Advanced Medical Training – Branch of the Russian Medical Academy of Continuous Professional Education (protocol No. 1 of January 14, 2020).

Results: Weighing of the food set showed that actual consumption of food products differed from that specified in the menu. The diet was imbalanced. Natural food standards were met in both preschools only for cereals and legumes (95–100 %), juices and fruits (100 %). Deficit of bread ranged from 8 to 28 % of the recommended consumption rate, and that of potatoes and vegetables was 14 %. Significant differences between the weights of food products actually consumed and listed on the menu were found for vegetables, potatoes, by-products, fish, cheese, and cottage cheese. The total caloric value of the rations was 6–12 % lower while the protein content was 8 to 18 %, fat content – 7 to 16 %, and that of carbohydrates – 5 to 11 % lower than declared.

Conclusions: Weighing provides more accurate data on children’s nutrient intake in preschools. Nutrition information given in the menus is overestimated by 6 to 15 % on the average. The parent survey showed that children did not eat some of the dishes from the preschool menu at home, so it was more difficult to adapt them to the proposed diet.

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