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The eating habits of children with overweight / obese and normal weight
ŠIMKOVÁ, Simona
The purpose of this bachelor´s thesis titled "Eating habits of overweight/obese and normal body weight children" was to find out how overweight/obese and normal body weight children abide by recommended healthy eating habits. The thesis is divided in two parts, a theoretical and a practical one. In the theoretical part, I describe basic terms regarding healthy eating habits for children. Furthermore, this part includes information about individual diet ingredients, about energy consumption and nutrients in various stages of children's development and about eating throughout the day. It also focuses on the issue of childhood obesity; it briefly covers eating disorders. The practical part focuses on mapping children´s eating habits. During the research, both quantitative and qualitative methods were utilized. The quantitative research was accomplished through a questionnaire on eating and physical activity preferences, where the respondents marked their frequency of various food consumption, how often they carry out certain physical activities, how often they watch television or use a computer. The qualitative research included data on weekly children's diets as well as their drinking regime (amount and kind of drink). The gathered data were evaluated using the Nutriservis professional and Microsoft Excel software. The processed data were interpreted in the form of text, graphs and tables. All the data were processed anonymously. The research sample was made up of 50 randomly selected respondents at 8 - 10 years of age, half of which (25 respondents) had a physiological weight and the other half (25 respondents) were obese/overweight. The respondents were selected based on the willingness of the children and their parents to cooperate. The questionnaires and forms used to record the food intake were distributed in schools in the Tábor district. Several children from Sezimovo Ústí also voluntarily participated. The data were gathered from February to March 2015. In total, 202 forms were distributed, out of which only 68 were used for the research purposes. Using percentile graphs, I evaluated each respondent´s weight based on their sex, height and age. According to the data in the weekly diet record I evaluated the intake of energy, protein, fats, carbohydrates, fiber and their drinking regime. Then I compared the gathered data with reference values for the given sex and age category. Furthermore, I compared the questionnaire answers to the diet record, which were continuously filled in by the respondents into the distributed forms. The research also evaluated regular physical activity, regular television watching and pc using. The gathered and evaluated data resulted in the fact that obese/overweight respondents take in too much energy and all macronutrients. The respondents with normal weight get optimal amount of energy, fats and carbohydrates. Protein intake is excessive even with the children with normal body weight. However, the average fiber intake is insufficient with all respondents. The overweight respondents´ drinking regime mostly consists of sweetened drinks; normal weight respondent's drinking regime mostly consists of non-sweetened drinks. The most significant problem of all overweight respondents was, therefore, excessive intake of sweetened drinks, higher intake of energy, protein, fats, carbohydrates and low intake of fiber. The lack of physical activity also plays a big role. Some respondents have regular physical activity only at school, which is twice a week. Children with physiological weight abide by recommended healthy eating habits more than overweight/obese children, who have significantly excessive intake of energy and individual nutrients, excessive consumption drinks consumption.
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