[Nordic nutrition recommendations 2023 on diet for health and environment estimated for children].

Abstract

Nordic nutrition recommendations 2023 (NNR2023) advised for the first time certain amounts of foods from food-groups based on scientific data on healthy and environment-friendly diet. The food-based-dietary-guidelines are intended for adults and children above age two, but children's energy requirement and intake are lower than those of adults. In this review, reference amounts of food from different food-groups are calculated for children to align with the combination recommended for adults in NNR2023. The calculated reference consumption for children aged three to 9 years was 50%-76% of that for adults, which means at least 250-380 grams daily of vegetables, fruits and berries, with at least half being vegetables. A comparison with results from studies on diet of randomly selected children in Iceland, in the capital area or country-wide, 2003-2012 (N=943), indicates that children's diet needs to be improved. The data are 10-20 years old, and new data are necessary, but changes in consumption of the food groups compared in the current paper are not expected to be large. Below 5% of the children had lower consumption of vegetables than advised. The median of meat intake was higher than advised maximum intake of red meat for pre-schoolers and adolescents. Pre-schoolers had high fish intake, while older children, especially adolescent girls, had a lower intake. New studies on children's diet are needed in Iceland to analyse their diet today.