title: [Healthy eating and the difficulties faced in making it a reality: perceptions of parents/guardians of pre-school children in Belo Horizonte/MG, Brazil].
abstract: A cross-sectional qualitative study was conducted to establish the perceptions of 77 guardians of preschool children enrolled in a Child Day Care Center in Belo Horizonte/Minas Gerais State, regarding what is a healthy diet and the difficulties faced in having a healthy diet. The instrument used was a pretested semi-structured questionnaire containing leading questions obtained in face-to-face interviews. For data analysis, the Collective Subject Discourse technique was used, which elicited data organization of a verbal nature. It was revealed that the guardians have a notion of what healthy diet is, however their answers implied inadequate eating habits. They attributed insufficient financial resources, lack of time and ingrained eating habits as being the main difficulties in having a healthy diet. These three difficulties are the reasons given by some guardians who do not believe they have a healthy diet. The conclusion drawn is that the guardians need to have a better diet, because their eating habits influence their children's eating habits. These findings revealed the need for food and nutrition education strategies to enable the guardians to recognize and have a healthy diet.
authors.affiliation: Escola de Enfermagem, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brasil, evmepia@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Isabel Cristina
authors.initials: IC
authors.lastname: Bento
authors.affiliation: Santa Casa de Misericórdia de Belo Horizonte, Brasil.
authors.forename: Juliana Maria de Melo
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Esteves
authors.affiliation: Faculdade de Minas, Brasil.
authors.forename: Thaís Elias
authors.initials: TE
authors.lastname: França
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D001938:Brazil; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D000072001:Diet, Healthy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010290:Parents; D012574:Schools