Author : Balaoing Lory C.

Summary : The study attempted to determine the dietary adequacy of Mountain State Agricultural College (MSAC) students who took nutrition education and the factors that underlie it. Results showed that 31 percent of the respondents were 21 years old and almost all of them were single. Most of them had normal weight (62 percent) but more were overweight (27 percent) than underweight (11 percent). Their ratings in their nutrition education ranged from 1.5 (very good) to 3.5 (conditional). Majority stayed in boarding houses and cooked their own meals. The mean score of respondents on the nutrition knowledge test was 22.17 out of 40. Sixty-four percent of respondents got scores below the mean. More than half (53 percent) respondents ranked below the medium knowledge category . Almost all (98 percent) the respondents had favorable attitude and 85 percent favorable food beliefs. There was a homogeneous mixture among the respondents as reflected by the standard deviation analysis of nutrition knowledge (Standard Deviation = 5.36), nutrition attitude (SD = 5.81), and food beliefs (SD = 5.82). Examination of the nutrient intake of the respondents; revealed that niacin, calcium, and protein exceeded while vitamin C was the most inadequately met nutrient. Among the food groups, most of the body-building foods were more than 100 percent adequate as compared to RDA. Cereals and cereal groups was sufficiently met (99.5 percent) while fruit and vegetable groups exceeded intake RDA. Among the variables tested, nutrition knowledge, allowance for food, and recency of training were the only factors found to influence diet rating of students. Only 45.45 percent of the total error on diet rating was explained by the variables tested. The remaining 54.55 percent remained unexplained.