School meals consumed by adolescents, São Luís, Maranhão, Brazil

Objective:This report evaluated nutritional composition of school lunch consumed by teenagers at two schools in São Luís (MA).Methods:Cross-sectional study setting a sample of 200 teenagers aged 15-17 years from two schools, one public and one private. There were undertaken dietary recalls of school lunch of the last three days the teenagers were at school. These dietary data were analyzed according to the Brazilian Table of Food Composition. Carbohydrates, lipids and proteins consumption were compared to the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI) recommendations. Statistical analysis was performed using Stata 10.0. For comparisons, there were used Student's t-test and χ2. The significance level was set at 5%.Results:The school lunch consumption was reported by 69.5% of adolescents. Most acquired this snack canteens of schools: private (76.0%) and public (51.0%). Adolescents from public schools had higher energy consumption (338.7 versus 286.3 kcal, p = 0.043) and carbohydrates (52.5 vs. 39.3 g, p = 0.006). The adequacy of macronutrients appeared in half of the sample: carbohydrates (43.9%), protein (43.2%) and lipids (49.6%). Almost the half (43.9%) of teenagers had appropriate carbohydrate intake. This adequacy of carbohydrate was higher between public school students (p