Dietary intake and Mediterranean diet adherence among Nutrition degree students at a private university in Encarnación, Paraguay
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21895797Keywords:
Mediterranean diet, adherence, students, nutrition, eating behavior, ParaguayAbstract
Introduction: The Mediterranean diet is one of the dietary patterns with the strongest accumulated scientific evidence regarding benefits for human health, with growing interest in its preventive role against noncommunicable diseases associated with chronic inflammation.
Objective: To estimate dietary intake and adherence to the Mediterranean diet among Nutrition degree students at a private university in Encarnación, Paraguay.
Materials and methods: Descriptive cross-sectional study. The 14-item Mediterranean Diet Adherence Screener (MEDAS), validated in Spanish, was administered electronically; scores below 8 were interpreted as low adherence and scores of 8 or higher as good adherence. Sixty-nine students who provided online informed consent participated.
Results: Of the 69 participants, 66 were women and 3 were men. Only 43.5% scored 8 or higher, indicating good Mediterranean diet adherence; the remaining 56.5% showed low adherence. The mean score was 7.09 out of 14 (median 7; range 3–12). The components with lowest compliance were use of olive oil as the main cooking fat and daily olive oil amount.
Conclusions: A considerable proportion of the Nutrition students evaluated showed low Mediterranean diet adherence, despite pursuing a degree directly related to healthy eating education.
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