The Food Pyramid Adapted to Physically Active Adolescents as a nutrition education tool

Abstract

This study aimed to assess the understanding of the Food Pyramid Adapted to Physically Active Adolescents as an educational tool to improve nutrition knowledge. Adolescents engaged in sport training responded to a nutrition knowledge questionnaire before and after the intervention. The pyramid intervention group received the printed educational material, and the broad intervention group received the printed material followed by a lecture. As a result, mean initial nutrition knowledge was average (59.9 ± 18 points), increasing (p<0.001) after the intervention (69.1 ± 20 points) without significant difference between interventions. In conclusion, adolescents' nutrition knowledge improved, even with the use of the Food Pyramid alone, indicating its use to promote nutritional knowledge.