Short communication: Patterns of dairy consumption in free-living children and adolescents

Abstract

According to national survey data, dairy food consumption has fallen in recent years and declines further with age, especially from childhood to adolescence. Dietary surveys typically rely on retrospective dietary assessment methods and use broad age groupings (4-10 yr; 11-18 yr), making it challenging to differentiate between middle-childhood and adolescence. Consequently, there is a need to assess dairy food consumption during middle-childhood and adolescence using more robust dietary assessment tools. Therefore, the present study aimed to describe and compare patterns of dairy consumption throughout middle-childhood and adolescence. Dairy food consumption was assessed during school term-time over 4 consecutive days, including 2 weekdays and 2 weekend days, in a sample of free-living children (9-11 yr, n=40) and adolescents (15-18 yr, n=35). For children, free-living dairy intake was evaluated through parental-weighed food records, and for adolescents, a combined weighed self-reported food record and 24-h dietary recall technique was utilized. Food records were explored to determine types, amounts, and frequency of dairy food consumption, and were analyzed for differences between middle-childhood and adolescence using a between group 2×2 (age×sex) ANOVA. Descriptive data suggested that milk was the most popular dairy product consumed by both children and adolescents. Statistical analysis revealed a main effect for sex on total milk consumption (mL) and number of daily milk portions consumed. No interaction or main effect was present for any other variable. The present study indicates that independent of age, boys consumed greater amounts of milk compared with girls. Contrary to existing literature, findings suggest no difference in milk-based dairy consumption between middle-childhood and adolescence.

Adherence to the Mediterranean diet and lifestyle characteristics of university students in Cyprus: A cross-sectional survey

“…Reports in the literature further suggest that consumption of dairy products by children and adolescents in many countries has waned in recent decades and declines further with age [20][21][22]. Our findings are therefore encouraging and support the hypothesis that at least some aspects of the Mediterranean diet are still pursued in Mediterranean countries such as Cyprus, including dairy and pulses, which ∼50% of study participants consume more than once per week.…”

“…The CYKIDS study [12] was a similar study conducted among school children (aged 9-13) in Cyprus during the school year [2004][2005], with a representative sample of school-aged children. Our study was conducted among young adults (aged [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] in 2014, making it very likely that the study sample described here comes from at least the same generation, after a time-span of 10 years. Although the sample of the CYKIDS study was representative of the total school-aged children's population, and our study was based on convenience sampling and therefore may not be representative of the total population of college students, we feel that comparisons are perhaps justified with regard to possible changes in dietary habits, prevalence of overweight and obesity, and adherence to the Mediterranean diet during the transition from childhood to young adulthood, especially as adherence to the Mediterranean diet was assessed using the same tool, the KIDMED index.…”

The association of dairy intake of children and adolescents with different food and nutrient intakes in the Netherlands

“…The consumption of dairy products was highest in children and decreased with age [ 8 ]. In other developed countries the proportion of children and adolescents meeting dairy product intake recommendation also tends to decrease with age [ 2 , 4 , 5 ], although Green et al found no difference in milk-based dairy consumption between middle-childhood and adolescence [ 6 ].…”

“…Nonetheless, in recent decades, the consumption of milk and dairy products by children and adolescents has waned, with a substantial proportion of youth failing to meet intake recommendations [ 2 ]. Whereas most studies found dairy consumption declines further with increasing age, particularly throughout adolescence [ 2 , 4 , 5 ], a British study found no difference in milk-based dairy consumption between middle-childhood (9 to 11 years) and adolescence (15 to 18 years) [ 6 ].…”

Metabolic, endocrine and appetite-related responses to acute and daily milk snack consumption in healthy, adolescent males

“…All items were isovolumetric (217 mL) and isoenergetic 180 (427 kJ), yet differed according to macro-nutrient composition ( Table 1). Milk was selected 181 as the dairy preload as this represents the most commonly consumed dairy food for this sex 182 and age group (Green, Turner, Stevenson, & Rumbold, 2015). The volume selected was 183 based on nationally representative consumption patterns (Bates, Lennox, & Swan, 2010), and 184 is similar to other snack-based studies (Almiron-Roig, Grathwohl, Green, & Erkner, 2009; 185 Mehrabani, et al, 2014).…”