Children’s dietary fat intake and fat practices vary by meal and day

« Objective This research examined the relationship between the dietary fat intake and fat practices of children by meal, day of week, and weekend day vs Weekday.Design Cross-sectional study.Subjects/Setting : Fourth- to sixth-grade students (n=520; 25% African-American, 32% white, 33% Mexican-American, 10% Asian/other, 58% girls) attending 8 parochial schools in Houston, Texas.Main Measures : Students completed-daily food records in the classroom for 7 days. Food- records were hand-coded for high-fat,(eg, frying foods, adding fat) and low-fat (eg removing meat fat, drinking low-fat milk) practices, and percent energy from fat.Statistical Analyses : Descriptive-statistics, Spearman correlation coefficients, and analysis of variance on fat intake and fat practices by demographic variables and weekend vs weekday.Results : Students consumed 36% of total energy from fat, reported 0.59 low-fat practices, and 6.3 high-fat practices per day. Only 13% cons,timed 30% or less energy from fat. Significant correlations were found between percent energy from fat and high-fat practices and low-fat practices (r=0.27, P<.001 and r=-0.15, P<.01, respectively).Applications/Conclusions : Intervention programs targeting children's dietary fat behaviors should include teaching skills that enable children to, ask for low-fat foods like fruit, vegetables, low-fat snacks and dairy foods. These foods Should be made available in the home to encourage children to practice low-fat dietary behaviors, which may differ depending on meal, day, and meal source."