Food consumption in and around the school

elementary school students usually stay in school 4.5 hours a day in Mexico. The main food consumption is outside school. The objective was to explore behaviors on food consumption beyond the school environment. descriptive trial that included 173 children, both sexes, from public elementary school in Mexico City. Eating habits were obtained through questionnaire and anthropometric characteristics from physical measurement. participants reported to consume soft drinks and canned juices at high frequency and quantity (80 %) and low consumption of animal foods. They also eat industrialized dairy products with high caloric content and low in protein. Moreover, 30 % of children eat 4 or 5 times a day, whereas 10 % eat one or two times a day. These results were associated with the somatometric characteristics of the children, 37.6 % of whom presented as overweight or obese while 12 % were underweight. it is necessary that health education involves teachers, parents and children in programs for obesity prevention with the objective of increasing healthy behaviors.