title: Lunch habits of German children and adolescents: composition and dietary quality.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Data from the ongoing, open-cohort Dortmund Nutritional and Anthropometric Longitudinally Designed (DONALD) study were used to describe warm family lunch meals and the association of the lunch composition with total diet quality.
  
  
  METHODS
  2,095 three-day weighed dietary records, collected between 2004 and 2009, from a 4- to 18-year-old DONALD study subgroup were used.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Warm lunch (eating occasions between 11.30 a.m. and 2.29 p.m. including at least one course that is typically consumed warm) was eaten on 68.8% of all record days. Meat lunch (>50%) was predominant, followed by vegetarian (25%), fish (13%) and sweet lunch meals (3%). The prevalence of desserts at lunch was high and beverages were drunk at 80% of lunch meals. A meat lunch was associated with a higher protein (+1.4% energy intake, %E) and fat intake (+1.7%E) than a sweet lunch; also densities of vitamin A, folate and iron were higher. A dessert at lunch decreased protein intake slightly (-0.2%E), but increased carbohydrate (+0.7%E) and added sugar intake (+1.4%E) as well as density of calcium (+18 mg/MJ).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study proves the impact of lunch on daily dietary quality and yields valuable insights on the development of food and meal-based dietary guidelines.
authors.affiliation: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms Universität Bonn, Bonn, Germany. alexy@fke-do.de
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Alexy
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Freese
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kersting
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Clausen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001628:Beverages; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004032:Diet / Q000592:standards; D015930:Diet Records; D004034:Diet Surveys; D002149:Energy Intake; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D062409:Lunch; D008297:Male