Abstract
Childhood obesity increases the risk for metabolic disorders, but is also related to nutritional deficiencies, such as anemia and hypovitaminosis D. Although children/adolescents with overweight/obesity may have higher energy intake, their diet quality and diversity may be low. The present study aimed to evaluate the consumption of foods against the national food-based dietary guidelines in children and adolescents with overweight or obesity in Greece. Sociodemographic, anthropometric and lifestyle data were collected from a sample of 1467 children 2–18 years old (962 obese, 505 overweight, 51.2% females) in 2014–2017. The results of this study show that the consumption of dairy products, fruit, vegetables, legumes and fish by children/adolescents with overweight or obesity was lower than the national recommendations (ranging from a minimum of 39.5% for fish, to a maximum of 75.5% for cereal/potato/rice). Only the consumption of meat/poultry was found to exceed the national recommendation (estimated coverage of 131.3%). Moreover, a large proportion of participants regularly consumed various unhealthy foods/beverages. The present findings indicate that the majority of children/adolescents with overweight/obesity do not comply with the national food-based dietary guidelines in Greece. The implementation of new strategies to promote healthy diets among children/adolescents with overweight/obesity are urgently required.
Highlights
Childhood obesity has significantly increased over the past decades [1]
Previous studies have shown that the prevalence of overweight and obesity among children and adolescents in Greece is high compared with other European countries
The ToyBox study revealed that 20.6% of preschool children in Greece were overweight/obese, while the Healthy Growth Study and the ENERGY project showed that this figure almost doubles at the age of 10–12 [2,3,4]
Summary
Previous studies have shown that the prevalence of overweight and obesity among children and adolescents in Greece is high compared with other European countries. The etiology of obesity is complex and attributed to a wide range of genetic, perinatal, socioeconomic and lifestyle factors that have been associated with this disease [5,6]. It may have detrimental effects on health, with significant short-term implications for children, including metabolic abnormalities, musculoskeletal and breathing problems, and psychosocial effects [1]. Obesity causes financial burden to the national health systems due to the high expenses required for the management of its complications [10]
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