Home packed food for nursery children in United Arab Emirates provides suboptimal quality
Document Type
Article
Source of Publication
Mediterranean Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism
Publication Date
1-1-2020
Abstract
© 2020 - IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved. BACKGROUND: Early childhood nutrition is associated with health outcomes later in life, hence developing health promoting habits from an early age is imperative. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to assess the nutritional adequacy of home-packed food brought to the nurseries by attending children. METHODS: In a cross sectional study conducted in 7 nurseries in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates 315 food-boxes were assessed through detailed food observations at the nurseries prior to mealtimes. The food content was evaluated using the Alberta Guidelines for nursery food, Canada. RESULTS: Most food boxes contained refined grains (77.5%), fruits (74.6%), sweet/full fat dairy products (77.5%), discretionary-calorie-food-items (70.6%). Emirati children were offered sweetened drinks significantly more (p<0.001). Non-dairy protein sources, vegetables, low-fat-natural-dairy products were offered to 45.4%, 44.1% and 3.9% of children, respectively. Overall, 70.2% of the food-boxes contained not-recommended food and 63.1% of the children were served a very poor food combination. CONCLUSIONS: Despite frequent inclusion of recommended food, many food boxes were nutritionally inadequate due to their low content of whole grains, low-fat dairy products, vegetables and animal proteins and high content of sweet food and drinks. The inadequate dietary patterns necessitate developing nutrition guidelines for nurseries in Abu Dhabi.
DOI Link
ISSN
Publisher
IOS Press
Volume
13
Issue
4
First Page
329
Last Page
339
Disciplines
Economics | Medicine and Health Sciences
Keywords
discretionary calories, food groups, Lunch boxes, nurseries, preschool children, United Arab Emirates
Scopus ID
Recommended Citation
Garemo, Malin; Elamin, Amal; and Gardner, Andrew, "Home packed food for nursery children in United Arab Emirates provides suboptimal quality" (2020). All Works. 1862.
https://zuscholars.zu.ac.ae/works/1862
Indexed in Scopus
yes
Open Access
no
