OBJECTIVE: To verify the prevalence of replacement of lunch and dinner with snacks among adolescents and its association with gender and nutritional status, and to evaluate the food that replaces such meals. METHODS: A cross-sectional study that enrolled 106 high-school students in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. The adolescents answered questions about how often they replaced lunch and dinner with snacks, and which foods replaced those meals. Their weight and height were measured in order to calculate the body mass index, and the nutritional classification was based on the World Health Organization criteria. Data were analyzed descriptively, with a significance level of 5%. RESULTS: One third of the adolescents replaced lunch and half of them replaced dinner with snacks. It was observed that girls replaced meals more than boys. The prevalence of meal replacement by snacks was higher among obese adolescents, being 40% for lunch and 70% for dinner. Sandwiches, baked or fried salty pastries, pizzas and hamburgers were the snacks that mostly replaced the meals. CONCLUSIONS: The replacement of meals, mainly dinner, with snacks was prevalent in the studied population. Most foods consumed in replacement of lunch and dinner had high energy density and low nutritional value.
food consumption; adolescents; food preferences
