Food fashions

In the last five years, major surveys of the eating habits of adolescents have been conducted in three parts of the British Isles, and this paper presents a comparison of the results. In April and May 1980 McSweeney and Kevany conducted a 24‐hour dietary recall and also asked some additional questions of 507 pupils, 94 per cent of whom were aged 15 or 16, in ten schools in the Republic of Ireland. In March and April 1981, the National Dairy Council also used a 24‐hour dietary recall with 1,748 children in the age range 5–18, but recorded their findings in three age‐groups, the oldest of which, 14–18, is used in this comparison. In December 1976–January 1977, McGuffin (unpublished thesis, 1979) conducted a general investigation of health knowledge and behaviour, which included questions on nutrition and general dietary practice, with a sample of 2,444 fifth form pupils (average age 15.9 years) in 167 grammar and secondary schools in Northern Ireland.