Purpose: This study aimed to characterise the nutritional behaviour of Gdynia Maritime University students in terms of consuming various types of drinks as a water source. Moreover, the aim was to analyse the determinants of these behaviours in the context of selected socioeconomic parameters that differentiate the studied group of respondents. Design/methodology/approach: The tool used to conduct the study was a survey questionnaire. The questions concerned the nutritional behaviour of students regarding the consumption of beverages as a source of water and the conditions for their diversity. Findings: The main source of water for students was mineral water. Unfortunately, it is associated with environmental pollution related to the packaging of this water (PET bottle). The second important source of water was tap water. This should be considered a manifestation of a developing trend in health-promoting, ecological and economic behaviours among the students. None of the socioeconomic factors differentiated students' behaviours when choosing bottled water. Research limitations/implications: Students constitute a specific group of respondents. It should be expected that their current behaviours will reflect the behaviour of a wider society group, but only in the future. Therefore, the results obtained in this study can be considered limited, especially in the short term. Thus, this study should be conducted in a group of older respondents. Then, the following study should be repeated on older respondents in the distant future. On this basis, it is possible to verify how the change behaviours of respondents over time. The obtained results should allow us to verify the assumption that students' behaviours can be treated as indicators of the behaviours of the future society. Practical implications: Consumers' eating behaviour regarding water consumption has health and environmental consequences. This approach to analysing water consumption is strategic because it concerns the direct and indirect impact on human health and quality of life. Originality/value: The study results were used to formulate conclusions regarding behaviours that determine human health, the state of the environment and, consequently, quality of life. Keywords: eating behaviour, bottled water, tap water, determinants of water choice, impact on the environment, freshwater deficit. Category of the paper: Research paper

To conduct rational hunting management, a certain number of wild animals must be harvested yearly. However, some countries have a problem with managing the harvested meat. An example is Poland, where game consumption is estimated at 0.08 kg/person/year. This situation leads to environmental pollution as a result of meat exports. The level of environmental pollution depends on the type of transport and distance. However, the use of meat in the country of harvesting would generate less pollution than its export. Three constructs were used in the study, which aimed to determine whether the respondents show food neophobia, whether they are willing to seek diversity in food, and what their attitudes towards game meat are. All the scales used were previously validated. Four-hundred and fifty-three questionnaires were collected using the PAPI method. It was found that the respondents showed ambivalent attitudes towards game meat to the greatest extent (76.6%), 16.34% had positive attitudes, and 7.06% had negative attitudes. It seems essential that most of the respondents were highly inclined to look for variety in food (55.85%). Regarding food neophobia, there were 51.43% of people with medium neophobia, while also many people with a low level of neophobia-43.05%. Such results allow speculation that the respondents are open to the new food, they are looking for it, and the low level of game meat consumption is primarily due to the lack of knowledge and awareness about the value of this meat.

he relevance of gut microbiota in a number of physiological and metabolic processes is undisputed. They have an extremely important role in the prevention and treatment of many lifestyle diseases. Modern man suffers from its constant decomposition. Measures to modulate and stabilise the intestinal balance include dietary supplements containing probiotic strains. The aim of the study was to identify attitudes towards probiotic supplements. The study included 234 respondents of varying gender, age, education, frequency of probiotic consumption and self-assessed knowledge of probiotics. A diagnostic survey method was used. Attitudes were identified using a 5-degree Likert scale. The majority of respondents (64%) declared a positive attitude, the remainder were neutral. No negative attitudes were declared. Factors significantly affecting attitude intensity included frequency of probiotic consumption (p < 0.001), gender (p < 0.025) and declared knowledge (p < 0.04). The use of positive attitudes should be considered in health promotion and management.

The aim of the study was to assess the reproducibility of a short-form, multicomponent dietary questionnaire (SF-FFQ4PolishChildren) in Polish children and adolescents. The study involved 437 children (6-10 years old) and 630 adolescents (11-15 years old) from rural and urban areas of Poland. The self-administered questionnaire was related to nutrition knowledge, dietary habits, active/sedentary lifestyle, self-reported weight and height, and socioeconomic data. The questionnaire was completed with a two-week interval-twice by parents for their children (test and retest for children), twice by adolescents themselves (adolescent's test and retest) and once by adolescents' parents (parent's test). The strength of agreement measured using the kappa statistic was interpreted as follows: 0-0.20 slight, 0.21-0.40 fair, 0.41-0.60 moderate, 0.61-0.80 good, and 0.81-1.00 excellent. Regarding the frequency of consumption of food items and meals, kappa statistics were 0.46-0.81 (the lowest: fruit/mixed fruit and vegetable juices; the highest: Energy drinks) in test-retest for children, 0.30-0.54 (fruit/mixed fruit and vegetable juices; breakfast, respectively) in adolescent's test-retest, 0.27-0.56 (the lowest: Sweets, fruit, dairy products; the highest: Breakfast) in adolescent's test and parent's test. Lower kappa statistics were found for more frequently consumed foods (juices, fruit, vegetables), higher kappa statistics were found for rarely consumed foods (energy drinks, fast food). Across study groups, kappa statistics for diet quality scores were 0.31-0.55 (pro-healthy diet index, pHDI) and 0.26-0.45 (non-healthy diet index, nHDI), for active/sedentary lifestyle items they were 0.31-0.72, for components of the Family Affluence Scale (FAS) they were 0.55-0.93, for BMI categories (based on self-reported weight and height) they were 0.64-0.67, for the nutrition knowledge (NK) of adolescents the kappa was 0.36, for the nutrition knowledge of children's parents it was 0.62. The Spearman's correlations for diet quality scores were 0.52-0.76 (pHDI) and 0.53-0.83 (nHDI), for screen time score they were 0.45-0.78, for physical activity score they were 0.51-0.77, for the FAS score they were 0.90-0.93, and for the NK score they were 0.68-0.80. The questionnaire can be recommended to evaluate dietary and lifestyle behaviors among children and adolescents.

A holistic approach to understanding the relationship between diet, lifestyle and obesity is a better approach than studying single factors. This study presents the clustering of dietary and lifestyle behaviours to determine the association of these dietary-lifestyle patterns (DLPs) with adiposity, nutrition knowledge, gender and sociodemographic factors in teenagers. The research was designed as a cross-sectional study with convenience sampling. The sample consisted of 1549 Polish students aged 11–13 years. DLPs were identified with cluster analysis. Logistic regression modelling with adjustment for confounders was applied. Three dietary-lifestyle patterns were identified: Prudent-Active (29.3% of the sample), Fast-food-Sedentary (13.8%) and notPrudent-notFast-food-lowActive (56.9%). Adherence to Prudent-Active pattern (reference: notPrudent-notFast-food-lowActive) was 29% or 49% lower in 12-year-old or 13-year-old teenagers than in 11-year-old teenagers, respectively, and higher by 57% or 2.4 times in the middle or the upper tertile than the bottom tertile of the nutrition knowledge score. To the contrary, adherence to Fast-food-Sedentary (reference: notPrudent-notFast-food-lowActive) was lower by 41% or 58% in the middle or the upper tertile than the bottom tertile of the nutrition knowledge score, respectively. In Prudent-Active, the chance of central obesity (waist-to-height ratio ≥0.5) was lower by 47% and overweight/obesity was lower by 38% or 33% (depending on which standard was used: International Obesity Task Force, 2012: BMI (body mass index)-for-age ≥ 25 kg/m2 or Polish standards, 2010: BMI-for-age ≥ 85th percentile) when compared with the notPrudent-notFast-food-lowActive pattern. In Fast-food-Sedentary, the chance of central obesity was 2.22 times higher than the Prudent-Active pattern. The study identified a set of characteristics that decreased the risk of general and central adiposity in teenagers, which includes health-promoting behaviours related to food, meal consumption and lifestyle. Avoiding high-energy dense foods is insufficient to prevent obesity, if physical activity and the consumption frequency of health-promoting foods are low and breakfast and a school meal are frequently skipped. The results highlight the importance of the nutrition knowledge of teenagers in shaping their health-promoting dietary habits and active lifestyle to decrease adiposity risk and negative aspects of lower family affluence which promotes unhealthy behaviours, both related to diet and lifestyle.

The aim of the present study was to assess eating behaviors and leisure time physical activity in children aged 7–10 years.The survey was conducted in a group of 107 parents of children attending grades 1–3 of primary school. A self-designed questionnaire was used as a research tool. Statistical analyses were carried out with the use of Spearman’s correlation test and Mann-Whitney U-test, with adopting α = 0,05 as showing significance. The study showed that 65% of children ate breakfast on a daily basis. The majority of pupils ate 4 meals a day. Current recommendations regarding vegetables consumption were followed by 25% of children, regarding fruits – by 32% and regarding fish – only by 10% of children. Over a half of pupils ate sweets at least once a day. Participation in leisure time physical activity on a daily basis was recorded only in 16% of children, whilst 48% of children were engaged in physical activity 2–3 times a week. As the results of the study indicated, children’s eating behaviors were mostly improper. Participation in leisure time physical activity was found to be low. These factors could adversely affect children’s development.

W artykule skupiono się na identyfikacji i opisie postaw oraz zachowań kobiet wobec żywności prozdrowotnej. Celem opracowania była identyfikacja postaw i zachowań wybranej grupy kobiet (N = 105) w wieku od 18 do 45 lat i o zróżnicowanej sytuacji finansowej wobec żywności prozdrowotnej. Badania przeprowadzono, wykorzystując metodę sondażu diagnostycznego z wykorzystaniem kwestionariusza ankiety. Badane kobiety wykazywały neutralne postawy wobec żywności prozdrowotnej. Zaobserwowano względną spójność pomiędzy postawami a zachowaniami. Wyższa cena produktów prozdrowotnych w stosunku do ich tradycyjnych odpowiedników oraz zmienione cechy organoleptyczne tych produktów były akceptowane do pewnej granicy.

Za ważny czynnik kształtujący postawy i zachowania konsumentów na rynku uznaje się przekaz marketingowy – reklamę. Jej celem jest kształtowanie pozytywnej postawy konsumenta wobec produktu. W artykule skupiono się na zagadnieniu zachowań żywieniowych i na reklamie żywności jako czynniku je warunkującym. Na podstawie uzyskanych wyników wykazano, że postawy wobec reklamy żywności były obojętne i negatywne. Wpływ reklamy na decyzje nabywcze konsumentów był niewielki. Najbardziej pożądanymi cechami reklamy w opinii respondentów były: oryginalność, prostota i jasność przekazu oraz informacje o wartości odżywczej reklamowanego produktu.

BACKGROUND:Dietary habits are formed at an early age and to a large extent they affect such nutritional behaviour in adulthood. Mothers in particular, influence family nutrition. In this respect, their knowledge, attitudes and behaviour about nutrition are responsible for the schooling of future generations. Many aspects of the link between food and health with nutritional behaviour in girls remain, however, unknown.OBJECTIVES:To determine the effect of girls attitudes towards the health benefits of food on selected dietary characteristics.MATERIAL AND METHODS:Study included 186 girls aged 13-21 years. Using a food frequency method the three dietary characteristics were obtained; food intake variety, fibre intake and fat intake, all of them expressed by a graded scale. Three validated questionnaires were used; FIVeQ, BSQFVF and BSQF. The girls attitudes towards the health benefits of food were rated from one of the survey's six parts, comprising of 8 statements from the Health and Taste Attitude Scale (HTAS) accordingly graded. Statistical analyses used logistic regression.RESULTS:The mean index of food intake variety was 28.7 foods/week (ranging 0-60), whilst the mean dietary intakes of fibre and fat were 16.7 points (0-36 range) and 18.2 points (0-52 range), respectively. Girls from the upper tertile with favourable attitudes on food health benefits had an odds ratio (OR) for adequate fat intake (<22 points) of 3.1 (95% CI: 1.28, 7.52; p<0.05), as compared to those from the middle-neutral attitudes tertile, with an OR = 1.00. The ORs for the relatively high food intake variety and acceptable fibre intake were 1.05 in girls from the positive-upper tertiles, which were not significant.CONCLUSIONS:The positive attitudes of girls towards the health benefits of food are conducive for making more favourable food choices and lowered dietary fat intake, however this did not significantly affect fibre intake nor food intake variety.

Introduction. Increasing interest in dietary supplements designed for athletes is accompanied by an increase in the number of commercial vendors offering a broad range of dietary supplements. It is also followed by phenomenon of wide availability and as a consequence universality of application of this group of preparations. The goal of this research project was to assess the use of dietary supplements by players of selected sports with consideration given to sex, age, education, level of physical activity and training experience. Material and methods. The study was conducted using the diagnostic survey method with the aid of a survey written by the authors themselves. The study population consisted of 216 athletes (100 powerlifters and 116 volleyball players) ages 16÷30. Statistical analysis of empirical material was conducted on the 2 basis of an test (pR 0.05 or higher). Results. A clear majority of subjects claimed to be convinced that diet and dietary supplementation exerted an important influence on their athletic performance. Despite giving their own diet a favorable assessment, more than 95% of respondents reported having difficulty following the diet, while simultaneously reporting the causes of this difficulty. The subjects rated their knowledge of how diet and supplementation enhance athletic performance as either average or very good. Their primary sources of knowledge on this subject were: the Internet, periodicals and promotional materials. The role of trainers, dieticians and physiologists was relatively insignificant. Around 64% of subjects reported general use of dietary supplements, while 72.7% claimed dietary supplementation to have a positive influence on their fitness and efficiency. The popularity of supplement use depended on the character of the athletic discipline. The most frequently used supplements were, in order of popularity: vitamin and mineral preparations, creatine, carbohydrate and protein supplements, BCAA and caffeine. The subjects were convinced that supplements for athletes, despite the various contraindications concerning their use and the presence of substances banned in certain sports, are not harmful to their health. Conclusion. Use of dietary supplements by athletes is universal and depends on the type of sport played.

Microstructure of malting barley kernels is one of the most significance factor of malt quality and is determined using simple evaluation of vitreous or mealy areas. The object of investigation was to verify the hypothesis, that the colour of endosperm of malting barley kernels depends of variety. The investigated materials were grains of 13 varieties of malting barley. The similarity of varieties was estimated by the electrophoresis of hordeins. The colour was measured using DIA system LUCIA G. It was found, that only the varieties for which the hordein image differed most (Maresi, Sezam, Granal) also differed in terms of the endosperm colour. The differences were statistically significant at p = 0.05. In majority of investigated varieties the endosperm colour was not specific variety feature, however, they are distinguished by hordein electrophoresis.