Investigation on Dietary Structure and Nutritional Health Status of Cadets in Air Force Youth Aviation School

Objective— To investigate the dietary characteristics and nutritional health status of cadets in air force youth aviation school. Methods— The 24-h dietary survey was used to investigate the dietary structure. The body composition index and blood biochemical indexes were measured to evaluate their health status. Results— According to the dietary guidelines for Chinese residents, the intake of fruits was seriously insufficient, reaching only 53.48%–80.23%. The intakes of sodium, potassium and phosphorus were high, calcium, iron, zinc and iodine were low. Folic acid intake reached 50.58% of the recommended amount of Chinese residents. The energy supply for breakfast was 23.97%, which was lower than the recommended amount, while the dinner was higher. Carbohydrate provided 1163.6 kcal (39.80%), which was lower than standard recommended. The proportion of protein intake from animal origin was slightly higher than the upper limit (50%) recommended by military standard. Among the blood biochemical indexes, only VD (25-OH) was low. Conclusions— The dietary structure of the cadets is not reasonable, and the intake of minerals and the energy supply ratio of the three nutrients are unbalanced. The overall nutritional health status was good, individual students had malnutrition.