Assistant Professor, Sudan University of science and technology, Faculty of Science and Technology of Animal Production
Online published on 6 August, 2012.
A total of 200 apparently healthy adult Sudanese females aged 40–50 years were invited to participate in this study. Participants were classified into two groups, non-obese, and obese (BMI-C:< 25 and >30kg/m2) based on WHO,1997. Most of the study participants either refused to record their food intake due to their believes. Or they were unable to estimate it. So food calorie content was excluded from this research. 48% of Non-obese women had two main meals per day, 52% had three main meals. Meanwhile, 92% of non-obese women had one light meal and 8% had two light meals per day. While, 35% of obese women had two main meals per day, 65% had three main meals. Mean while 91%had one light meal and 9% had two light meals per day. At (P<0.05) obese women had higher number of main meals per day compared to non-obese women. There was no significance difference in number of light meals taken by subjects participated in this study. Chi test values were (0.00, 4.50) respectively. The predominant potent factor of weight gain is the amount of food eaten by study participants. So a new eating behavior should be introduced. Eating in separate plate make individuals more aware about the amount of food they consume during having a meal. Reducing working hours or traditional food supplementation should be provided to employees.
