Jj. Strain et al., ESTIMATES OF FOOD AND MACRONUTRIENT INTAKE IN A RANDOM SAMPLE OF NORTHERN-IRELAND ADOLESCENTS, British Journal of Nutrition, 72(3), 1994, pp. 343-352
Estimates of food consumption and macronutrient intake were obtained f
rom a randomly selected population sample (2%) of 1015 adolescents age
d 12 and 15 years in Northern Ireland during the 1990/1991 school gear
. Dietary intake was assessed by diet history with photographic album
to estimate portion size. Reported median energy intakes were 11.0 and
13.1 MJ/d for boys aged 12 and 15 years respectively and 9.2 and 9.1
MJ/d for girls of these ages. Protein, carbohydrate and total sugars i
ntakes as a percentage of total energy varied little between the age a
nd sex groups and were approximately 11, 49 and 20% respectively of da
ily total energy intakes. Median dietary fibre intakes were approximat
ely 20 and 24 g/d for boys aged 12 and 15 years respectively and 18 an
d 19 g/d for girls of these ages. Major food sources of energy (as a p
ercentage of total energy intakes) were bread and cereals (15-18%), ca
kes and biscuits (12-14%), chips and crisps (13-14%), dairy products (
9-11%), meat and meat products (9-11%) and confectionery (9%). Fruit a
nd vegetable intakes were low at about 2.5% and 1.5% respectively of t
otal energy intakes. Median fat intakes were high at 39% of total dail
y energy intakes. Major food sources of fat as a percentage of total f
at intakes were from the food groupings: chips and crisps (16-19%), me
at and meat products (14-17%), fats and oils (14-16%), cakes and biscu
its (13-16%) and dairy products (12-15%). Median intakes of saturated
fatty acids were also high at approximately 15% of daily total energy
intake while intakes of monounsaturated fatty acids averaged 12% of da
ily total energy intake. Median polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) inta
kes were low, comprising 5.2 and 5.5% of daily total energy intake for
boys aged 12 and 15 years respectively and were lower than the PUFA i
ntakes (5.9 and 6.3% of daily total energy intake) for girls of these
ages. About 1.3% for boys and 1.4% for girls of daily total energy int
ake was in the form of n-3 PUFA. Ca and Mg intakes were adequate for b
oth sexes. Based on these results, some concern about the dietary habi
ts and related health consequences in Northern Ireland adolescents app
ears justified.