Eating and nutrition are two primary determinants of some non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, cancer and obesity (1,2). Obesity, and childhood obesity in particular, stands as one of the most serious public health challenges of the 21st century (3-5). Unbalanced eating habits and low levels of physical activity seem to be the main culprits in the development of this illness (6). Recent data confirms that 1/3 of Portuguese children between the ages of 6 and 8 are overweight, and 14.6% are obese (7). Accordingly, Portugal stands out as one of the EU countries with the highest prevalence of childhood obesity (8). In order to prevent NCDs and their determinants, it is necessary to develop and implement eating and nutritional strategies and policies through a surveillance network (9-11). However, these mechanisms have not yet been fully implemented in Portugal.

To this effect, the project “Food Consumption of School Aged Portuguese Children: development and testing of a new evaluation tool” is currently underway at the Institute of Preventive Medicine of the Faculty of Lisbon. This innovative project aims to develop, validate and implement a new online tool for evaluating the food consumption of school aged Portuguese children, and it is a substantially improved mechanism to assess children’s food intake. In addition, it is a creative process that will enable the systematic evaluation of children’s food intake, with the objective of increasing knowledge about it. It also adds value to health and the economy, since it will allow identifying the protecting and determinant factors of some of the most prevalent chronic diseases in children, such as obesity. The project also raises new scientific questions, as there is no individual data on the food consumption and nutritional intake of the Portuguese population, particularly of children, as the last and only National Food Intake Survey, which was designed specifically to obtain data on individual food consumption, dates from 1980.

In short, this project will enable the development of a valid, reliable, and simple tool that is equally appealing to Portuguese school aged children and which will enable the collection of detailed information on the quality and amount of food intake and estimate the energy and nutritional intake of these children, in order to develop good and nutritional strategies and policies for evaluation and action purposes.
Maria Ana Silva Carvalho
Doctoral Student in the Degree Metabolic Diseases and Eating Behaviour
of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon
mariaanacarvalho@gmail.com

________________________
Bibliographical References

1. Nestle M. Nutrition in Public Health and Preventive Medicine. In: Wallace RB, Kohatsu N. Public Health & Preventive Medicine. 15th ed. Iowa City: McGraw-Hill; 2007. p. 1195-1203.
2. Shetty PS. Food and nutrition. In: Detels R, Beaglehole R, Lansang MA, Gulliford M. Oxford Textbook of Public Health. 5th ed. USA: Oxford University Press; 2009. p.177-196.
3. Dehghan M, Akhtar-Danesh N, Merchant AT. Childhood obesity, prevalence and prevention. Nutrition Journal. 2005; 4: 4-24.
4. James WP. The challenge of childhood obesity. International Journal of Pediatric Obesity. 2006; 1(1):7-10.
5. Lobstein T, Frelut ML. Prevalence of overweight among children in Europe. Obesity Reviews. 2003; 4:195-200.
6. WHO Technical Report Series. Diet, Nutrition and the Prevention of Chronic Diseases. Geneva: WHO; 2003.
7. PORTUGAL. Ministério da Saúde, Instituto Nacional de Saúde Doutor Ricardo Jorge, e outro. Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative: COSI Portugal 2008/ Instituto Nacional de Saúde Doutor Ricardo Jorge, Direcção-Geral da Saúde; Rito A, Paixão E, Carvalho MA, Ramos C. - Lisboa, IP 2011.
8. Lobstein T, Rigby N, Leach R. EU Platform on Diet, Physical Activity and Health. Brussels: IOTF and EASO 2005 15 March 2005.
9. European Charter on Counteracting Obesity. Copenhagen: WHO Regional Office for Europe; 2006.
10. WHO European Action Plan for Food and Nutrition Policy 2007-2012. Copenhagen: World Health Organization – Regional Office for Europe; 2008.
11. White Paper on a strategy for Europe on nutrition, overweight and obesity related health issues. Brussels: Commission of the European Communities; 2007.