The XXIV Congress of the Portuguese Nutrition Association, held in Braga on 8 and 9 May, was attended by several ciTechCare researchers, research fellows and undergraduate students in dietetics and nutrition at ESSLei, where they shared their latest scientific work.
One of the posters presented by researcher Cátia Braga-Pontes entitled “Influence of sociodemographic and anthropometric factors on knowledge, willingness to experiment and consumption of vegetables in preschool children: Results of the Veggies4myHeart project” is co-authored by Rita Novo, Leonel Vieito, Sara Simões Dias, Marlene Lages and Maria P. Guarino. This study revealed that factors such as age, sex and nutritional status of children between 2 and 5 years old, significantly influence knowledge, the desire to experiment and consumption of vegetables: children with obesity showed less willingness to experiment and lower consumption of vegetables compared to children with normal weight and low weight.
The researchers Cidália Pereira, Vânia Ribeiro and Carla Guimarães are also co-authors of several papers presented at the Congress, such as “Characterization of the culinary and food skills of students from a Higher Education Institution in Portugal” and “Evaluation of the nutritional profile of organic foods marketed in Portugal: dairy products and their substitutes”, presented by Cidália Pereira and “Evaluation of the nutritional profile of processed biological products based on cereals sold in Portugal”, presented by Vasco Gameiro, a Dietetics and Nutrition student. All the works above were also developed by several ESSLei students.
The “Characterization of the culinary and food skills of students from a Superior Education Institution in Portugal” article, developed by Eloísa Silva, Mariana Antunes, Tatiana Ruivo, Dietetic and Nutrition students and researchers Cidália Pereira, Daniela Vaz, Vânia Ribeiro and Carla Guimarães, counted on a sample of 336 students and aimed to evaluate the culinary skills (CC) and food practices (PA) of students from a higher education institution in Portugal, through an online survey using the Assessment of Food and Cooking Skills in Young Adults tool, validated for Portugal. The female sex obtained a significantly higher score in both evaluated aspects. Regarding the CCs, “steaming” and “cooking legumes in a pressure cooker” were issues evaluated with worse performance and in the PAs “planning and preparing meals in advance”, “buying seasonal products and cheaper meat pieces/parts to save money” and “read nutritional information on the labelling” were highlighted by the lowest score.
The poster “Evaluation of the nutritional profile of organic foods marketed in Portugal: dairy products and their substitutes”, developed by the students Inês Reis, Mikaela Segura, Marna Souza and researchers Cidália Pereira, Daniela Vaz, Carla Guimarães and Vânia Ribeiro, intended to analyze the nutritional profile of organic processed dairy products (yogurt and cheese) and organic processed substitutes (vegetable drinks and yogurt substitutes of plant origin), marketed in Portugal and the results indicated that processed organic products are not always nutritionally balanced, demystifying the idea that they are intrinsically healthier.
Vasco Gameiro presented the poster “Evaluation of the nutritional profile of processed biological products based on cereals sold in Portugal”, co-authored by students Lara Ferreira, Sara Moniz, Tomás Lopes and researchers Cidália Pereira, Daniela Vaz, Vânia Ribeiro and Carla Guimarães, which aimed to analyze the nutritional profile of processed biological products, based on cereals [(PBP-C) – breakfast cereals, toast, crackers and cereal bars], marketed in Portugal. From a sample of 241 PBP-C, only 14 (5.4%) fully met the criteria of the label decoder of the Directorate-General of Health. Cereal bars stood out as the type of product with the lowest frequency of DR-DGS compliance. The results suggest that the choice of organic food does not guarantee, by itself, a nutritionally more balanced option, reinforcing the importance of nutritional literacy.
Maria João Batalha, PhD student in Public Health, also presented the work ‘Validation of the Food and Nutrition Literacy Scale (E-LAN)’, which aimed to measure food and nutritional literacy in Portuguese youth between 10 and 12 years old, and which proved to be a concise tool with adequate psychometric properties.
