Abstract

International recommendations indicate that 400 g/ day or its equivalent to 5 servings of fruits, vegetables or legumes should be consumed daily. Our aim was to determine patterns of consumption of fruits, vegetables and legumes among Chilean university students. Materials and Methods: Cross-sectional study. University students (n= 1454) from the north, center and south of Chile were evaluated. A selfassessment survey was used to evaluate healthy eating habits(fruits, vegetables and legumes). Seventy-eight percent ofparticipants were women. When analyzing the consumptionfrequency of fruits, vegetables and legumes according todifferent universities, only fruits and vegetables showeda statistically significant difference (p< 0.01). percent of students do not meet recommended amounts for fruit consumption; 72% for vegetables and 77% for legumes. Among women, 6.3% of the total sample met the recommendation for fruit, while, for men, the value was 8.4%; for vegetables, we observed that 29.5 and 21.3% of women and men, respectively, met the recommendation; for legumes, 2.4% of women and 5% of men met the recommendation. There was a low consumption of fruits, vegetables and legumes among university students, with levels far from the international recommendations