Functional Food Consumption and Its Associated Factors among University Students in Malaysia during COVID-19 Pandemic

Background

In the current situation of COVID-19, dietary intake that incorporates functional foods may potentially be a preventive measure for defence against viral infection. This study aimed to determine the consumption of functional foods and its associated factors among university students during COVID-19.

Methods

This was a cross-sectional study conducted among 284 Malaysian university students in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. An online self-administered questionnaire was employed to assess subjects' nutrition knowledge, dietary habits, attitude towards functional foods, recognition and consumption of functional food products.

Results

Out of 284 respondents, 41.9% had poor level of nutrition knowledge and 57% had moderate level of functional food-related attitude, with seven types of functional foods consumed on average (57.0%). Binary logistic regression showed that university students who consumed fruits at least three times per day (aOR = 11.18; 95% CI: 1.46, 80.17), salty snacks (aOR = 2.90; 95% CI: 1.43, 5.86), soft drinks/sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) (aOR = 3.12; 95% CI: 1.53, 5.26) and pure juice (aOR = 2.80; 95% CI: 1.48, 5.30) were more likely to consume functional foods during COVID-19 (P < 0.05).

Conclusion

The findings could provide information to public and private sectors in terms of creating a supportive environment to encourage and promote the awareness and consumption of functional foods and their associated health benefits.

Perceptions About Health, Nutrition Knowledge, and MyPlate Food Categorization Among US Adolescents: A Qualitative Study

OBJECTIVE

To understand how adolescents define related nutrition terms and use food groups to classify commonly consumed foods into the MyPlate food groups.

DESIGN

Qualitative study with telephone interviews.

SETTING

Houston metropolitan area in Texas.

PARTICIPANTS

A convenience sample of 21 adolescents from a volunteer database of the research center.

MAIN OUTCOMES MEASURES

Sociodemographic questions were asked before semiquantitative structured interviews. The interview focused on understanding how adolescents defined health, other nutrition terms, and food groups, and how to use the MyPlate icon in categorizing commonly consumed foods into groups.

ANALYSIS

Hybrid thematic approach with inductive and deductive analyses.

RESULTS

Adolescents defined being healthy in terms of wellness-type behaviors (eg, diet, physical activity, and sleep). They perceived clear differences between terms such as healthy vs unhealthy food but struggled to define others (eg, energy-dense foods and processed foods). Mixed dishes, hard candies, chocolate chip cookies, and potato chips were the most difficult foods for the adolescents to classify into the MyPlate food groups, whereas apple, lettuce, and milk were easily classified.

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS

Food guidance systems, public health policies, and behavioral nutrition programs targeting adolescents might use health and nutrition terms and prescriptive food categories more clearly understood by adolescents.

Associations between Child and Parent Knowledge of Added Sugar Recommendations and Added Sugar Intake in Multiethnic Elementary-Aged Children

BACKGROUND

A key goal of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2015-2020 is to reduce added sugar intake by increasing public knowledge about added sugars. However, research has not shown if knowledge of added sugar recommendations is associated with intake.

OBJECTIVES

To determine the relation between parent and child knowledge of added sugar recommendations with added sugar intake in primarily low-income and Hispanic third- to fifth-grade students.

METHODS

Analysis examined baseline, cross-sectional data from TX Sprouts, a 1-y cooking, gardening, and nutrition clustered randomized controlled trial. Participants were 685 parent-child dyads from 16 elementary schools in the greater Austin area. Parents and children completed a survey to assess knowledge of added sugar recommendations. Children completed two 24-h dietary recalls to assess average intake of added sugars. Mixed effects linear regression models were used to estimate associations between child and parent knowledge of added sugar recommendations and average total added sugar intake.

RESULTS

Children who correctly identified the added sugar recommendation consumed lower amounts of added sugar compared with children who did not correctly identify the recommendation (34.8 ± 2.7 compared with 41.0 ± 2.5 g; P = 0.003), after adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics. Parent knowledge of added sugar recommendations was not associated with child intake.

CONCLUSIONS

Child knowledge of added sugar recommendations was associated with lower intake of added sugars. Findings suggest that child nutrition education should focus on increasing knowledge of national recommendations. Future research should investigate a causal relation between added sugar knowledge and intake in elementary-aged children.