Nutritional quality and acceptability of a weekly vegetarian lunch in primary-school canteens in Ghent, Belgium: %26apos;Thursday Veggie Day%26apos;

作者：De Keyzer Willem^*; Van Caneghem Sven; Heath Anne Louise M; Vanaelst Barbara; Verschraegen Mia; De Henauw Stefaan; Huybrechts Inge

来源：Public Health Nutrition, 2012, 15(12): 2326-2330.

DOI：10.1017/S1368980012000870

• Schools
• Food services
• Child
• Vegetarian diet
• Plate waste

Objectives: To determine the nutritional adequacy and acceptability to children of vegetarian lunches served on %26apos;Thursday Veggie Day%26apos; - a public health initiative in Ghent (Belgium) primary schools. %26lt;br%26gt;Design: A comparison of food leftovers from main courses on regular days and Thursdays was made using a visual plate waste method. The nutritional value of the vegetarian meat analogue and meat components of main courses served on five %26apos;Thursday Veggie Days%26apos; and five comparable conventional main courses was evaluated using three criteria (maximum 30% of energy from fat, maximum of one-third of fat as saturated fat and minimum 1.5 g of dietary fibre per 420 kJ). %26lt;br%26gt;Setting: Two canteens from primary schools in Ghent, Belgium, participating in the %26apos;Thursday Veggie Day%26apos; campaign. %26lt;br%26gt;Subjects: Primary-school children aged between 6 and 12 years. %26lt;br%26gt;Results: In total, 1242 and 472 main course plate waste observations of conventional and vegetarian menus, respectively, were evaluated. There was no significant difference in plate waste between vegetarian (16.7%) and conventional (17.3%) main courses. Overall, the five vegetarian components were found to be nutritionally adequate with a mean score of 2.2 out of 3, compared with 0.4 for the meat component. However, three of the vegetarian components provided %26gt;30% of energy from fat and, in one, the amount of saturated fat exceeded one-third of total fat. %26lt;br%26gt;Conclusions: Vegetarian canteen meals offered as part of %26apos;Thursday Veggie Day%26apos; appear to be nutritionally appropriate and as acceptable as conventional main courses to children in primary schools in Ghent.

• 出版日期2012-12