A frequency survey of sugary foods and drinks consumption in school children and adolescents in a West Indian island - Antigua

Abstract

In 1991, the pattern of sugar consumption in samples of 172 12-year-old children and 231 15-19-year-old adolescents was studied. Twenty-four hour dietary records of five consecutive days were obtained from each subject. The frequency of total sugary food and drink episodes for children was 3.16 and 3.71 for adolescents. This was mainly accounted for by the consumption of sugary items at meals for both age groups. Students mostly consumed sweetened drinks at meals, especially at breakfast and ate sugary foods between meal times, particularly between lunch and dinner. Sweetened tea and juice were the most popular drinks and confectionery was the most popular snack food.