Consumo de alimentos funcionales y relación con indicadores nutricionales en adolescentes de bachillerato de Unidades Educativas. Ambato. 2017.

Abstract

The objective of the following investigation was to identify the functional food consumption and its relation with nutritional indicators of high school teenagers that attend Rodriguez Albornoz de las Madres Doroteas and Luis A. Martínez Educational Units in the city of Ambato. This is a correlation and cross- sectional study in which 88 students were taken into account, 55 females and 33 males. The consumption frequency with scales was used to identify the food consumption: daily, from 1 to 3 times a week, twice a month, once a month and never. After that, the information was clustered into the following categories: daily, weekly, monthly and never, in order to identify the most consumed food for each group. The nutritional status was determined using anthropometric indicators (BMI, SA index, WHtR or WSR and it was complemented with the sexual maturation, which was assessed with the five Tanner stages. The results show a greater daily consumption of oils (olive and sunflower) (31%), vegetables (30%), legumes (25%) and fruit (22%). Neither malnutrition caused by excessive ingesting, nor deficit was detected. The male subjects didn’t present any growth retardation and the percentages detected in the female subjects were worthless to be taken into consideration. So, an adequate nutritional status is appreciated in most of the subjects investigated. In all the anthropometric indicators taking into account gender, important statistical differences were found. It is concluded, when linking the functional food consumption with the nutritional status that most of the students have a good nutritional status. However, no important statistical differences were found. It is recommended to eat functional food because it provides nutritional benefits and it is healthy.