Knowledge Bank

Childhood overweight has become a serious public health concern. Research regarding relationships among dietary factors, childhood obesity, eating patterns, and types of foods is warranted. It has been widely accepted the method of using BMI percentiles from the CDC growth charts to classify children into overweight (OW), at-risk (AR) and normal weight (NW) classes. Data from the 1999-2002 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) were examined for the US population and the age category stratification that I focused on was 12-18 year olds, males and females. Four categories were focused on as contributors to childhood overweight. In all of the four categories which included saturated fat (SF), discretionary fat (DF), total fat (TF), and added sugars (AS), the children in the NW group ate the most variety of foods. Females have more sources of TF and SF than males. Females and males have equal leading sources of DF. Top sources for all categories included dairy, processed/fatty meats, salty snacks/chips, pizza, condiments and table fats, and French fries. The top source for the TF and DF categories was French fries. The top source for the SF group was whole milk. Beverages from the leading sources contributed >50% to AS in all categories. The specific foods consumed by children in all categories must be evaluated to aid in changing the food patterns in this age category’s intakes in the future.