"Home packed food for nursery children in United Arab Emirates provides" by Malin Garemo, Amal Elamin et al.
 

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.

ISSN

1973-798X

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

85097676037

Indexed in Scopus

yes

Open Access

no

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