Energy, Nutrients And Food Sources In Snacks For Adolescents And Young Adults

Objective:To evaluate associations between snacking and energy, nutrients and food source, and to identify the contribution of snacking across age, sex, weight status and lifestyle behaviors among adolescents and young adults.Methods: A sub-sample was calculated from the population-based cross-sectional study 2015-Health Survey of Sao Paulo (ISA-Capital). The survey "ISA-Nutricao" used a sample of non-institutionalized individuals aged >15 years. For this study, only adolescents (12-18 years old; n=418) and young adults (19-29 years old; n=218) were included. Snacks were identified, and their contribution to energy, nutrients, and food sources were calculated. Descriptive statistics and logistic regressions were used.Results: Participants experienced an average of 2.9 +/- 0.6 snacking occasions per day. Young adults consumed more energy from morning and night snacks, and adolescents, from afternoon snacks. The top three food sources on snacking contributed to 30.5% of energy: cookies (11.8%), sugar sweetened beverages (9.4%), sweets and other desserts (9.3%). Although results were non-significant, being a female (Odds Ratio [OR] 0.93; 95% confidence interval [95%CI] 0.36-1.49), meeting the physical activity recommendations (OR 0.75; 95%CI 0.25-1.25), and scoring higher for the healthy eating index (OR 0.88; 95%C 0.24-1.52) were all factors related to increased intake of snacks. Alternatively, overweight individuals (OR-0.54; 95%CI-1.00 to-0.08) consumed less snacks.Conclusions: Improving the quality of snacks should be considered in behavior-change strategies.