State Of Nutrition in Turkey

Abstract

The actual area of Turkey inclusive of its lakes is 814,578 square kilometres and has land area in both Europe and Asia. Turkey is surrounded by two European (Greece and Bulgaria) and five Asian (Georgia, Armenia, Iran, Iraq and Syria) countries. The average altitude of the country is approximately 1,130 metres above sea level. The country is administratively divided into 80 provinces. These are further subdivided into districts, subdivisions and villages. According to the 1995 census, the total population of Turkey is 62.2 millions; of them, 63% live in urban areas. The population is expected to reach 69.5 million in the year 2000 and 82 million in 2010 (MOH, 1997a). The population of Turkey is relatively young. According to 1995 census data, 35% of the total population is under the age of 15 years and only 4.2% are over the age of 65 years. The projections to determine the age distribution of the population for the year 2025 are 22.9% and 9.0% for the respective age groups, with an elderly population creating different health care service demand during the 21st century (MOH, 1997a). TRENDS IN FOOD CONSUMPTION PATTERNS Turkey, with respect to its climate and land nature, has an arable land. The share of the crop production in agricultural production was 56.9% in 1991 and 66.7% in 1994. In 1994 about 33.3% of agricultural production was cereals and 17.1% was industrial plants (MOA, 1996). Wheat is a staple food for the Turkish people. The major percentage of energy comes from bread with other cereals (58%). Annual wheat consumption per capita is 150-200 kgs. Wheat is mainly consumed as bread, macaroni and bulgur (parboiled pounded

Malnutrition and Cardiometabolic Risk among Turkish Adolescents: a Public Health Concern during Epidemiological Transition

“…Eating habits such as skipping breakfast or excessive intake of carbohydrate-rich foods (candy, desserts, soft drinks) in Turkish adolescents have been reported for the last 30 years, in addition to low intakes (< 67% of Recommended Daily Allowance) of energy, protein, vitamins A and C, riboflavin, iron and calcium in both male and female adolescents [19].…”

Food and nutrition policies: what's being done in Turkey

“…The usage of household iodised salt raised to 62% in 2002 and to 70% in 2003 11,21 . Dietrelated chronic diseases such as obesity, cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, type II diabetes, dental caries and some types of cancers are major health problems 4,7 . The results of national and local surveys indicate that the average diet was adequate to meet the recommended daily intake of energy and most of the nutrients, while animal protein, calcium, vitamin A and riboflavin are lower than recommended intake.…”

Validation of a general nutrition knowledge questionnaire in a Turkish student sample

“…This is due to cultural and religious influences which encourage people to cover their head, arms and other parts of the body (14) . These deficiencies originate from inappropriate eating patterns and habits that are instigated by high food costs, lack of nutrition knowledge and incorrect practices of food preparation, cooking and storage (6,15) . Nutrition knowledge may play a pivotal role in the adoption of healthier food habits but it must be noted that knowledge on its own cannot bring about the desired changes due to the complex nature of food behaviour (16) .…”

“…The third addition was a question about the bioavailability of Fe from plant sources when compared with animal sources. This question was included in the questionnaire as Fe deficiency is a major public health problem in Turkey (5,6,8) .The major change to the original questionnaire was in the 'diet-disease relationships' section. Each of the five open-ended questions in this section was replaced by a table with a number of diseases and the participants were asked whether the consumption of a food or a food group was related to these diseases (see Appendix, items D1 to D5).…”

“…Fe deficiency is a major public health problem in Turkey. About 30-50 % of children and 50 % of pregnant/lactating women have been reported to have Fe-deficiency anaemia (3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8) . Approximately one-third (30?5 %) of the population was reported to have iodine deficiency and related health problems (such as goitre) (9) .…”