Dietary status and food preference among preschool children in Beijing,Shanghai and Guangzhou city

ObjectiveTo explore the preschool children's dietary status and food choice behaviors,and to provide scientific basis for helping the children to improve their eating habits.MethodsTotally 3 045 children were investigated on intakes of 21 kinds of common food over the previous 6 months with a food frequency questionnaire.ResultsThe consumption of vegetable was extremely low(89.29 g/per day averagely),while poultry meat consumption was much higher than the recommended amount.There were 58.46% of the small boys and 61.41% of the small girls having serious food preference hehavior,with a significant gender difference(χ²=24.025,P<0.05).ConclusionThere are a deficit in vegetable intake and an excess in meat consumption among preschool children in Beijing,Shanghai and Guangzhou city.The popularization of reasonable diet knowledge should be strengthened to improve dietary behavior among the preschool children.