Consumption of fruit and vegetables and their relationship with the desired body image in cuban teenagers, 2018

Abstract

Objective: was to relate the desired body image with the frequency of fruit and vegetable consumption in a sample of adolescents from San Cristóbal, Artemisa. Material and Methods: An analytical and transversal observational study was carried out, with 365 adolescents from 12 to 19 years old, selected by simple random sampling. Body Silhouettes Test and Semi-quantitative Consumption Frequency for fruits and vegetables were applied. The Spearman correlation coefficient was determined with IBM SPSS.21. Significance was established below 0.05. Results: 52.3% had excess body weight (overweight or obesity), 31.5% corresponded to the female gender. Females were perceived as overweight (81.7%), and they wanted images of adequate weight (72.8%). Males were perceived with adequate weight (50%) and slight thinness (40.2%), and they wanted images within the thinness (90.2%). The highest consumption of fruits and vegetables was 2 to 3 days after week. The correlation between the desired body image and fruit and vegetable consumption was significant for vegetables (rs =-0.533, p = 0.013), but not for fruits (rs = 0.186, p = 0.420). Conclusions: A desired body image within BMI categories that tend to thinness is moderately associated with a higher consumption of vegetables, but not fruit, which may be influenced by the low consumption in the sample studied.