Age and sex dependence of food intake in the Mount Ayliff district
Kirsten, C.M.
South African Medical Journal 48(57): 2357-2359
1974
ISSN/ISBN: 0256-9574 PMID: 4473838 Document Number: 75573
Intake on weekdays, Saturdays and Sundays was found by questioning 573 Xhosas in the Mount Ayliff district of the Transkei. All ate cereals and 98% ate from the miscellaneous food group including tea, coffee, fat, sugar and sweets. Vegetables and fruit were eaten by 84%, meat, milk, eggs and fish by 49% and wild foods by 5.1% of them. Samp was the most popular cereal food and showed no significant intake difference with age or sex. Umkhupha, the traditional steamed bread, was preferred by women as was imbila, a drink of fermented maize or sorghum meal. Bantu beer was drunk predominantly by the men, of whom only 40% ate green leafy vegetables. Wild green leaves were eaten mostly by the women and children, but all ate cultivated leafy vegetables particularly cabbage. Meat was eaten by 49% of those studied, and by about equal percentages of the men, boys and girls. Chicken was eaten by only 2% of the women on weekdays, but by 22% of them on Sundays; 11% of Xhosas took milk. A higher proportion of children than of adults got soup, a nourishing item provided through a school feeding scheme. Differences in eating habits with age and sex were worth consideration by nutritionists.