Professional

Abstract

LEARNING OUTCOME: To state whether taste enjoyment for food items containing calcium predicts calcium intake in adolescents.The purpose of this study was to determine whether adolescents who enjoy the taste of foods containing calcium have higher calcium intakes. Volunteer participants at Appleton Area Public School District, Appleton MN, were recruited from the middle schools and high schools. There were 677 participants who ranged in age from 11 to 19 years. The subjects completed a food frequency questionnaire previously validated to measure calcium intake (JADA 89:1484-88). Taste enjoyment scores for 56 foods were also calculated. A correlation test does not indicate a strong linear relationship between average taste enjoyment and average calcium intake for adolescents. However, the results of the t-tests indicate significant differences exist between gender for calcium consumption as well as perceptions of taste enjoyment for many calcium containing foods. Males consume more calcium from the following foods on a daily basis: cheese sauce, fast food milkshake, egg McMuffin, fast food hamburger, fast food cheeseburger, and custard pie. Whereas females consume more calcium from skim milk, flavored yogurt, broccoli, tofu, and frozen yogurt. Compared to females, males prefer the taste of whole milk, low-fat milk, cheese sauce, American cheese, blue cheese, fast food milkshake, eggnog, chocolate milk, figs, pancakes, egg McMuffin, fast food hamburger, fast food cheeseburger, bean burrito, creamed fish, shellfish, canned salmon, sardines, custard, and pudding. Whereas females prefer the taste of skim milk, flavored yogurt, broccoli, grain bread, muffins, and frozen yogurt. Although significant differences exist between gender for both calcium intake and perception of taste enjoyment, perception of taste enjoyment by adolescents as a group does not predict their behavior to consume the items identified in this survey. These results suggest that other variables besides perception of taste enjoyment influence calcium consumption behavior in adolescents.