INTERVENTION ON TEENAGE‘RS AWARENESS ABOUT ULTRAPROCESSED FOODS AND ITS CONSEQUENCES ON HEALTH IN CUIABÁ, MT

INTRODUCTION/OBJECTIVE: Teenagers have been classified as a risk group that requires specific strategies to promote healthy eating habits and intervention on their low intake of fruits and vegetables. The authors attempted to change some adolescent's food habits through lectures, visual demonstrations of the amount of sugar and fats of industrialized foods, putting side-by-side junk foods with its contents of the cited ingredients, and a question-and-answer game with them about the subject. This article’s objective is to describe this activity as a method to develop adolescent's consciousness on healthy dietary habits. METHOD: The target-population consisted of 84 students between 11 and 15 years old, of high socioeconomic standard, in a private elementary school in Cuiabá, MT. A five multiple-choice questions questionnaire was used to measure the children's previous knowledge on the subject. There was also a later analysis of the teenager’s participation during the activities. RESULTS/CONCLUSION: The highest number of mistakes on the questionnaire applied was on the question regarding the daily limit of sugar intake recommended by the World Health Organization. Fortunately, the percentage of correct answers increased from 31% in the questionnaires applied before to 96.7% after the presentation. The children actively participated with a great number of questions, showing their prior knowledge on the subject. The activities were successful, mainly because the children were very receptive to new information and open-minded about change of habits. Furthermore, their ability to learn quickly, their high socioeconomic standard and the favorable school environment allowed the great impact of the attempt.