Nutrition among the students of Pärnumaa

As eating habits among teenagers is a very actual topic at the moment in Estonia, we chose to learn something about this subject.

The results of our research are based on two methods. Method 1 was a test that was carried out among the students from 8-12 class in 4 schools in Pärnumaa: The Gymnasium of Pärnu Koidula, The Basic School of Vanalinna, The Basic School of Paikuse and The Basic School of Jõõpre. All in all 356 students in the age of 14 to 19 answered the test, 190 of them were girls and 166 boys. In the second method students daily noted what and when they ate and drank. 50 students from The Gymnasium of Koidula from classes 10-11 took part in this survey, 19 of them were boys and 31 girls.
Now I would point out some main problems, which estonian teenagers have with eating.

1. About 1/3 of the students don´t eat breakfast or eat it seldom. We should understand, that it is very important to eat breakfast as it gives us the first amount of energy for the physical and mental work, it wakes us up.

2. The attendance of the canteen decreases drastically in the gymnasium. Our suggestion is that for all the students dinner should be free. The lenght of the lunch-break should be longer, because those 5-10 minutes that remain from standing in the queue is too short for healthy nutrition. Also lunch should be more varied: every day there should be a bowl of salat or soup on the tray (that sets the digestion working), then the roast with various sauces and meat vegetables (that gives us the basic part of the protein and fat we need) and the meal should end with different deserts (that gives us the feeling that we are full).

3. Supper is a meal when people try to make up the amount of food that they haven´t eaten during the day. This isn´t good at all because human organism cannot digest large amount of food at one time and it starts to turn into fat. For supper you should eat more fruits and vegetables and less caloric products.

4. Younger and younger people have serious problems with their health. People eat enough caloric food, but too few vital vitamins and minerals. Students should be informed of the connections between unhealthy nutrition and illnesses.

5. Almoust 1/5 of the students who answered to the questions don´t do any sport at all. We suggest everybody to be more active and take part in different sports.
I hope you all could find something new from this research because for us it gave some really suprising knowledge

http://www.hot.ee/comeniusparnu/tabel.pdf