Diferencias en calidad nutricional de los alimentos expendidos en los bares de los colegios del grupo control y los del grupo de intervención del programa nutricional ACTIVITAL de la ciudad de Cuenca

Introduction: Obesity is a problem with an increasing occurrence in young people and in developing countries. Poor nutrition is a risk factor for obesity and other chronic noncommunicable diseases. Methods: the recipes prepared by the staff of the bars in the control group for two days randomly selected using a kitchen scale to the nearest 1 gram were measured. The average of each bar recipe nutritional content compared with recommendations for snacks. It is further estimated the average energy density of prescriptions per school (kcal/g) and the average weight in grams of fruits and vegetables to compare these parameters with data already available from schools in the intervention group. Results: None of the schools offers healthy food. When comparing the control group with refreshments intervention group no significant differences in the content of fruit were found, but the energy density of the schools in the intervention group was modestly lower than the control group ( P = 0.01). Conclusion: Although the energy density of food was lower in the intervention group , overall not comply with recommendations . New preventive measures are urgently needed to improve the nutritional quality of the bars in the city of Cuenca and reverse the occurrence of overweight, obesity and chronic noncommunicable diseases. KEYWORDS : FEED , OVERWEIGHT , OBESITY , Chronic Noncommunicable Diseases , TEENS , NUTRITIONAL QUALITY FOOD , SCHOOLS, RAND STUDY GROUP CONTROL , AND BARS GROUP INTERVENTION , Activital NUTRITIONAL PROGRAM , MACRO AND MICRO , COMPARE , BASIN , ECUADOR .