Background: Balanced meals eaten by toddlers at nursery school play an important nutritional role in satisfying a child's daily demand for energy and nutrients as well in preventing any dietary deficiencies or excesses from occurring.
Objective: To evaluate the energy and nutritional value of children's diets at nursery schools in Lodz, Poland. MATERIALS AND METHODS; Analyses were performed at 30 nursery schools throughout the Lodz city municipality on the basis of 10 day menus and food inventory reports. Results were calculated using the 'Dieta 5.0' computer programme according to the databas at the Warsaw Institute for Food and Nutrition. These were related to nutritional standards for children aged 1-3 years.
Results: On verage, dietary calorific values exceeded those of current nutritional recommendations, where protein was found to be 3 times higher than current standards although falling within the range of reference values. Dietary fat intake was f ound to be rather low, with a high content of saturated fat coupled with low intakes of polyunsaturated fatty acids. Dietary carbohydrates agreed with recommended limits however these were exceeded by the mean sucrose intake. Significant deficiencies were most noted in vitamin D and iodine intake and additionally vitamin E and iron intakes were also low. However, intakes of sodium, phosphorus, magnesium, zinc, vitamin A, B2, B6 and B12 were above the recommended values.
Conclusions: The diets surveyed in nursery schools need to be better balanced to comply with current standards and dietary guidelines.