IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v13y2016i6p572-d71705.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Diet of Preschool Children in the Mediterranean Countries of the European Union: A Systematic Review

Author

Listed:
  • Luís Pereira-da-Silva

    (NOVA Medical School, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisbon 1169-056, Portugal
    Pediatric Department, Hospital Dona Estefânia, Centro Hospitalar de Lisboa Central, Lisbon 1169-045, Portugal)

  • Carla Rêgo

    (Faculty of Medicine, Porto University, Porto 4200-319, Portugal
    Center for Health Technology and Services Research (CINTESIS), Porto 4200-3129, Portugal
    Child and Adolescent Service, Hospital CUF Porto, Porto 4200-180, Portugal)

  • Angelo Pietrobelli

    (Pediatric Unit, Verona University Medical School, Verona 37134, Italy
    Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70808, USA
    On behalf of the Mediterranean Nutrition (MeNu) Group.)

Abstract

This systematic review discusses data on the dietary intake of preschool children living in the Mediterranean countries of the European Union, including the comparison with a Mediterranean-like diet and the association with nutritional status. Specifically, data from the multinational European Identification and Prevention on Dietary and life style induced health effects in children and infants (IDEFICS) study and national studies, such as the Estudo do Padrão Alimentar e de Crescimento Infantil (EPACI) study and Geração XXI cohort in Portugal, ALimentando la SAlud del MAñana (ALSALMA) study in Spain, Étude des Déterminants pré-et postnatals précoces du développement et de la santé de l’ENfant (EDEN) cohort in France, Nutrintake 636 study in Italy, and Growth, Exercise and Nutrition Epidemiological Study in preSchoolers (GENESIS) cohort in Greece, were analyzed. In the majority of countries, young children consumed fruit and vegetables quite frequently, but also consumed sugared beverages and snacks. High energy and high protein intakes mainly from dairy products were found in the majority of countries. The majority of children also consumed excessive sodium intake. Early high prevalence of overweight and obesity was found, and both early consumption of energy-dense foods and overweight seemed to track across toddler and preschool ages. Most children living in the analyzed countries showed low adherence to a Mediterranean-like diet, which in turn was associated with being overweight/obese. Unhealthier diets were associated with lower maternal educational level and parental unemployment. Programs promoting adherence of young children to the traditional Mediterranean diet should be part of a multi-intervention strategy for the prevention and treatment of pediatric overweight and obesity.

Suggested Citation

  • Luís Pereira-da-Silva & Carla Rêgo & Angelo Pietrobelli, 2016. "The Diet of Preschool Children in the Mediterranean Countries of the European Union: A Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-20, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:13:y:2016:i:6:p:572-:d:71705
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/6/572/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/6/572/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eichhorst, Werner & Neder, Franziska, 2014. "Youth Unemployment in Mediterranean Countries," IZA Policy Papers 80, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Claire Coxon & Gemma Devenish & Diep Ha & Loc Do & Jane A. Scott, 2019. "Sources and Determinants of Discretionary Food Intake in a Cohort of Australian Children Aged 12–14 Months," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(1), pages 1-17, December.
    2. Francisca de Castro-Mendes & Pedro Cunha & Inês Paciência & João Cavaleiro Rufo & Mariana Farraia & Diana Silva & Patrícia Padrão & Luís Delgado & André Moreira & Pedro Moreira, 2021. "The Influence of Eating at Home on Dietary Diversity and Airway Inflammation in Portuguese School-Aged Children," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(5), pages 1-15, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cuéllar Martín, Jaime & Martín-Román, Ángel L. & Moral, Alfonso, 2017. "A composed error model decomposition and spatial analysis of local unemployment," MPRA Paper 79783, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Vassilis Monastiriotis & Corrado Macchiarelli & Nikolitsa Lampropoulou, 2019. "Transition Dynamics in European Labour Markets During Crisis and Recovery," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 61(2), pages 213-234, June.
    3. Floro Ernesto Caroleo & Antonella Rocca & Paolo Mazzocchi & Claudio Quintano, 2020. "Being NEET in Europe Before and After the Economic Crisis: An Analysis of the Micro and Macro Determinants," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 149(3), pages 991-1024, June.
    4. Chiara Natalie Focacci, 2020. "“You reap what you sow”: Do active labour market policies always increase job security? Evidence from the Youth Guarantee," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 49(3), pages 373-429, June.
    5. di Porto, Edoardo & Tealdi, Cristina, 2022. "Heterogeneous Paths to Stability," IZA Discussion Papers 15246, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Iacopo Odoardi, 2020. "Can parents’ education lay the foundation for reducing the inactivity of young people? A regional analysis of Italian NEETs," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 37(1), pages 307-336, April.
    7. Floro Ernesto Caroleo & Elvira Ciociano & Sergio Destefanis, 2017. "Youth Labour-Market Performance, Institutions and Vet Systems: A Cross-Country Analysis," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 3(1), pages 39-69, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:13:y:2016:i:6:p:572-:d:71705. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.