Energy and fat intakes of children and adolescents in the United States: data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys

Background: Dietary factors related to body weight and chronic disease risk are of interest because of recent increases in the prevalence of overweigh t. Objective: Secular trends in energy and fat intakes of youths aged 2-19 y w ere assessed. Current intakes were compared with recommendations. Design: Dietary 24-h recall data from the third National Health and Nutriti on Examination Survey (1988-1994) and earlier national surveys were examine d. Results: Mean energy intake changed little from the 1970s to 1988-1994 exce pt for an increase among adolescent females. Over the same time period, the mean percentage of energy from total and saturated fat decreased, but rema ined above recommendations, with overall means of 33.5% of energy from fat and 12.2% of energy from saturated fat, in 1988-1994, approximate to1 in 4 youths met the recommendations for intakes of fat and saturated fat and 3 i n 4 met the recommendation for cholesterol intake. Beverages contributed 20 -24% of energy across all ages and soft drinks provided 8% of energy in ado lescents. Except for adolescent girls, beverage energy contributions were g enerally higher among overweight than nonoverweight youths; soft drink ener gy contribution was higher among overweight youths than among nonoverweight youths for all groups. Conclusions: The lack of evidence of a general increase in energy intake am ong youths despite an increase in the prevalence of overweight suggests tha t physical inactivity is a major public health challenge in this age group. Efforts to increase physical activity and decrease nonnutritive sources of energy may be important approaches to counter the rise in overweight preva lence.