FOOD ENERGY INTAKES THROUGHOUT CHILDHOOD: 1 TO 18 YEARS


	FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS	ESN:FAO/WHO/UNU EPR/81/18A October 1981
	WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
	THE UNITED NATIONS UNIVERSITY

Provisional Agenda Item 2.4.2

Joint FAO/WHO/UNU Expert Consultation on Energy and Protein Requirements

Rome, 5 to 17 October 1981

ADDENDUM

FOOD ENERGY INTAKES THROUGHOUT CHILDHOOD: 1 TO 18 YEARS

R.G.Whitehead, A.A.Paul

and

T.J. Cole

Addendum

Food energy intakes throughout childhood: 1 to 18 years

R.G. Whitehead, A.A. Paul and T.J. Cole

Summary and Conclusions

The analysis of studies on food energy intakes throughout childhood has been extended to include data from other industrialised countries as well as the UK. For boys, intakes start to fall slightly below the WHO/FAO recommendations at 7 years of age, but by 16 years the mean intake is some 300 kcal/d lower. From age 5, girls show a consistently even lower intake than the recommendation which is most evident between 13 and 18 years, amounting to over 400 kcal/d. In comparison with earlier studies from the UK and USA carried out between 1930 and 1960, present day intakes during the teenage years are very much lower, yet the reported body weights of the children in all studies are close to the NCHS 50th centile. There is indication that the present day peak intakes of both boys and girls occurs slightly earlier than previously, and it corresponds approximately to the peak in the adolescent growth spurt.

A fuller discussion of this analysis is in preparation.

Table 1B Details of additional studies incorporated into the analysis*
Ref No.	Authors	Years of Study	Country	Subjects	Numbers	Dietary Method
20 (P)	McNaughton & Cahn (1970)	1961	Australia	School + work	92 Boys, 186 girls 16–19 years Cross sectional	7 day record, weights + household measures
21 (Q)	(Hampton et al. (1967) (Huenemann et al. (1967)	1963–65	USA	School. Caucasian, Negro, Oriental	279 Boys, 335 girls 16–17 years Cross sectional and longitudinal	7 day diary of amounts
22 (R)	Steel & Johnson (1975)	1954–71	Australia	Melbourne - Baby Health Centres. British stock	60 boys, 60 girls Longit 2–18 y	7 d record - descriptive
23 (T)	Wharton (1963)	1956–58	USA	3 Schools. University town high school. Mining area. S. European, Negro.	146 Boys, 275 girls 13–18 years	3 days record, standard measures and servings
24	(Eppright et al. (1954) (Eppright & Stuart (1959)	1948–52	USA	Random from 61 schools Iowa	1,188 cross-sectional, 6 to 18 y approx. 30–60 boys and girls each year	7 day prospective record
25	(Burke et al. (1959) (Reed & Stuart (1959)	1930–56	USA	Via prenatal clinic N. European stock Boston	67 boys, 67 girls Longitudinal 1–18 y	Diet history by interview Usual intake + cross check
26	Widdowson (1947)	1935–39	UK	Volunteers, mainly London & S.E. England. Mostly middle class.	916 Cross sectional 20–30 boys and girls each y from 1–18 y	7 d weighed record

* Details of references 1 to 19 are given in the position paper, plus appendix, on “Food energy requirements of infants and pre-school children”.

Table 2B
Food energy intakes (kcal/d) of children between 1 and 18 years predicted from the regression equations compared to WHO/FAO
Age (years)	Predicted energy intake		WHO/FAO (1973)
Age (years)	Boys	Girls	Boys	Girls
1–2	1300	1200	1180	1180
2–3	1440	1340	1360	1350
3–4	1570	1470	1560	1520
4–5	1700	1590	1720	1670
5–6	1820	1690	1870	1790
6–7	1940	1780	2010	1900
7–8	2050	1860	2140	2010
8–9	2150	1930	2260	2110
9–10	2250	1980	2380	2210
10–11	2340	2020	2500	2300
11–12	2430	2050	2600	2350
12–13	2510	2060	2700	2400
13–14	2580	2060	2800	2450
14–15	2650	2050	2900	2500
15–16	2710	2020	3000	2500
16–17	2770	1980	3050	2420
17–18	2820	1930	3100	2340
18–19	2860	1870	3100	2270

Boys: Energy = 1077 + 151.7 years - 3.0 years²

Girls: Energy = 955 + 169.4 years - 6.5 years²

References to additional studies*

Burke, B.S., Reed, R.B., van den Berg, A.S. and Stuart, H.C. (1959) Caloric and protein intakes of children between 1 and 18 years of age. Pediatrics 24 922–940.

Eppright, E.S, and Sidwell, V.D. (1954) Physical measurements of Iowa schoolchildren. J. Nutr. 54 543–556.

Eppright, E.S., Sidwell, V.D. and Swanson, P.P. (1954) Nutritive value of the diets of Iowa schoolchildren. J. Nutr. 54 371–388.

Hampton, M.C., Huenemann, R.L., Shapiro, L.R., Mitchell, B.W. (1967) Caloric and nutrient intakes of teenagers. J. Amer. diet Ass. 50 385–396.

Hansman C. (1970) Anthropometry and related data, anthropometry skinfold thickness measurements. In Human Growth and Development. R.W. McCammon ed. C.C. Thomas, Springfield.

McNaughton, J.W. and Cahn, A.J. (1970) A study of the food intake and activity of a group of urban adolescents. Br. J. Nutr. 24 331–344.

Reed, R.B. and Stuart, H.C. (1959) Patterns of growth in height and weight from birth to eighteen years of age. Pediatrics 24 904–921.

Steel, J.E. and Johnson, J.M. (1975) Nutrient intakes of the subjects of the Melbourne University Child Growth Study. J. Diet. Ass. Vic. 26 18–26.

Wharton, M.A. (1963) Nutritive intake of adolescents. J. Amer. diet Ass. 42 306–310.

Widdowson, E.M. (1947) A study of individual children's diets. Spec. Rep. Ser. Med. Res. Counc. No. 257. London HMSO.

* References 1 to 19 are given in the position paper, plus appendix, “Food energy requirements of infants and pre-school children”.

Fig. 1. Energy intakes (kcal/d) of boys and girls from 1 to 18 years compared to WHO/FAO 1973 recommendations. Numbers and letters refer to reference numbers given in Tables 1 and 1A of the position paper and Table 1B. The solid line is the fitted quadratic regression line for Boys Energy = 1077 + 151.7 years - 3.0 years² and for girls Energy = 955 + 169.4 years - 6.5 years²

Fig. 2. Energy intakes (kcal/d) of boys and girls studied between 1930–1959 compared to more recent studies. Symbols are for the references as follows 5, Ñ8,Ñ21,Ñ23, Δ12, Δ17,Δ18,Δ19, ◊20, □ 22, ▼ 24, • 25, ▲ 26.

Fig. 3. Energy intakes (kcal/kg) of boys and girls from 1 to 18 years compared to WHO/FAO 1973 recommendations. Numbers and letters as for Fig. 1.

Fig. 4. Energy intakes (kcal/kg) for boys and girls from 1 to 18 years studied between 1930–1959 compared to more recent studies. Symbols as for Fig. 2.

Fig. 5. Body weights of boys and girls shown in Fig. 1, compared to NCHS 50th Centiles.

Fig. 6. Comparison between body weights of boys and girls studied between 1930–1959 and those from more recent studies. Symbols as for Fig. 2.