Selection and estimation of meals within children of different age-groups

With regard to the reported knowledge concerning the health value of food in 9-10-year-old children (DGE, 1984) the question arose of whether this knowledge is also valid if pupils have to evaluate meals. Twenty-seven photos of meals (9 each of breakfast, lunch and supper) were presented to 252 children of the age groups 6-7, 9-10 and 12-13 years. By means of these photos, they were requested to organize their meals for 3 days. Subsequent to this procedure the children were asked to evaluate the meals with regard to their health value. The presented meals were classified by five experts of nutrition as more healthy, indifferent and less healthy. The results showed an improved selection of more healthy meals with increasing age. Likewise, the selection of meals for lunch and supper was better than the one for breakfast. There were no differences between boys and girls and children with and without experience of dieting. The evaluation of more healthy and less healthy meals demonstrated an improvement with increasing age. In contradiction to these results, children within all age groups showed a very low level of estimation (10 %) for indifferently classified meals and this level did not improve with increasing age. The results were discussed concerning the establishment of an appropriate education of nutrition with regard to the developmental stage and the emotional and motivational engagement of the children.