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Irish teenagers’ intake of fruit and vegetables are low, with less than three servings a day, while their consumption of sugar, salt and saturated fat are higher than recommended, a new national survey has found.
Intake of dietary fibre is lower than advised while significant numbers of teenagers have inadequate intakes of calcium, vitamin D, vitamin C, folate, vitamin A, vitamin B6, iron and riboflavin.
The National Teens’ Food Survey has found that a quarter of teenagers are classified as being overweight or obese.
The study of 428 teenagers aged 13 to 18 years was carried out by a team of researchers in University College Dublin, Munster Technological University, University College Cork and Technological University Dublin and was funded by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.
The study documented the diet and body weight of a nationally representative sample of secondary school students across Ireland during 2019 and until March 2020.
The survey included direct body measurements as well as information on lifestyle, such as physical activity.
The prevalence of being overweight and obese is 24 per cent (boys 23 per cent, girls 24 per cent), up from 18 per cent (boys 18 per cent, girls 18 per cent) in 2005-06.
Eating at home is still the main source of calories for teenagers, however one fifth of calories were consumed from food prepared outside the home.
The main barriers noted by teenagers to eating a healthy diet were their likes and dislikes, convenience, and food availability.
Recent dietary changes include reduced intake of milk, potatoes, fruit juice, sugar-sweetened drinks, sugar and salt, and increased intake of pasta, rice and savouries, fruit, and water.
The main dietary sources of vitamins and minerals are milk and milk products, meats, breads, potatoes and cereals, especially fortified breakfast cereals, and fruit and vegetables.
Biscuits, confectionery, snacks and sugar-sweetened drinks that are low in essential nutrients, provide about 18 per cent of calories.
Meanwhile, participation of teenagers in physical activities is relatively high with an average of 81 minutes per day spent being physically active. A total of 67 per cent of teenagers met the recommendation of at least 60 minutes per day of physical activity.
Median daily time in sedentary behaviours was 455 minutes, and 231 minutes of screen time.
Janette Walton, from Munster Technological University, said that the data provided by this study can be used in the development of healthy eating guidelines.
“We need to continue to promote guidelines for healthy eating for this age group – guidelines that focus on lower consumption of fat, salt and sugar, and higher intake of vegetables and fruit and other foods that provide key vitamins and minerals,” Dr Walton said.
Breige McNulty, from UCD Institute of Food and Health, said the findings will assist in the development of programmes to tackle obesity.
“The levels of obesity in teenagers have increased in recent years, with similar rates across both genders. This is in contrast to the stabilisation observed in other population groups,” Dr McNulty said.
“The high levels of teenagers affected by overweight and obesity need to be addressed, and targeted strategies for this population group are required.”