EVALUATION OF AVERAGE DAILY CONSUMPTION OF DAIRY PRODUCTS BY STUDENTS

Abstract

The conscious daily choice of the healthy food contributes to preserving health and high working capacity, including mental performance. Milk and sour-milk products make up the essential part of students’ daily diet needed to supply the body with all necessary nutrients and energy. The aim of this study is to assess daily consumption of milk and sour-milk products in order to correct the students’ diet. Materials and methods: Using the questionnaire [6], the authors questioned medical students and analyzed obtained results on the medical students’ dietary habits. The study involved the 2nd, 4th and 6th study year students of O. Bogomolets National medical university. The survey participation was voluntary by obtaining prior consent from students. The sample was selected randomly. The sample includes 858 respondents, 570 female and 288 male students aged 18-25 years. Results: The study represents the results of comparative assessment of the recommended daily consumption of milk and sour-milk products with their real consumption. The authors have evaluated daily consumption of such dairy products as milk, kefir, yoghurt, sour cream, butter, hard cheese and cottage cheese. The consumption of milk, kefir, yoghurt and sour cream was estimated by the following grading: “I don’t consume these products”, “I consume not more than 250 ml of such products daily”, “I consume 250-400 ml of such products daily”, “I consume more than 400 ml of these products daily”. The consumption of hard cheese was evaluated by the grading: “I don’t consume it”, “I consume not more than 10g daily”, “ I consume about 10-20g of it daily”, “I consume more than 20g of it daily”; cottage cheese: “I don’t consume it at all”, “I consume not more than 100g daily”, “I consume 100-200g of it daily”, “I consume more than 200g of it daily”; butter: “I don’t consume it”, “I consume not more than 15g of it daily”, “I consume more than 15 g of it daily”. The study has found that one third of the respondents do not consume whole milk, regardless of sex and the year of study. Less than 20% of respondents daily consume 250-400 ml of milk. Half of the junior student respondents do not consume sour-milk products at all regardless of sex. 20% of the junior students and 20-30% of the senior respondents consume 250-400 ml of sour-milk products daily irrespective of sex. No more than one third of respondents irrespective to sex or year of study consume 10-20g of hard cheese daily. 100-200g of cottage cheese (low-fat) is usually included into the daily diet of 10-30% respondents, and there is dependency on the sex and year of study. The high-fat cottage cheese is not eaten by a half of the respondents irrespective to the sex and year of study; while 10% of junior students and 20% of senior students regardless of the sex include 100-200g of it in their daily diet. About 20% of male respondents irrespective their year of study and 30% of female respondents do not eat butter at all. Conclusions. The results obtained show numerous deviations from national recommendations on healthy nutrition and point out existing risks of the nutritional deficiencies, alimentary and alimentary-dependent diseases. The students’ youth diet and the attitude toward the healthy diet require serious correction.