Children's dietary fat intake and fat practices vary by meal and day.
OBJECTIVE
This research examined the relationship between the dietary fat intake and fat practices of children by meal, day of week, and weekend day vs weekday.


METHODS
Cross-sectional study.


METHODS
Fourth- to sixth-grade students (n = 520; 25% African-American, 32% white, 33% Mexican-American, 10% Asian/other, 58% girls) attending 8 parochial schools in Houston, Texas.


METHODS
Students completed daily food records in the classroom for 7 days. Food records were hand-coded for high-fat (eg, frying foods, adding fat) and low-fat (eg, removing meat fat, drinking low-fat milk) practices, and percent energy from fat.


METHODS
Descriptive statistics, Spearman correlation coefficients, and analysis of variance on fat intake and fat practices by demographic variables and weekend vs weekday.


RESULTS
Students consumed 36% of total energy from fat, reported 0.59 low-fat practices, and 6.3 high-fat practices per day. Only 13% consumed 30% or less energy from fat. Significant correlations were found between percent energy from fat and high-fat practices and low-fat practices (r = 0.27, P < .001 and r = -0.15, P < .01, respectively).


CONCLUSIONS
Intervention programs targeting children's dietary fat behaviors should include teaching skills that enable children to ask for low-fat foods like fruit, vegetables, low-fat snacks and dairy foods. These foods should be made available in the home to encourage children to practice low-fat dietary behaviors, which may differ depending on meal, day, and meal source.
Cullen
Karen Weber
KW
Children's Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA. kcullen@bcm.tmc.edu
Lara
Katina M
KM
de Moor
Carl
C
D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D015930:Diet Records; D004041:Dietary Fats / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D004522:Educational Status; D002149:Energy Intake; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013781:Texas
D004041:Dietary Fats