The term food literacy comprises the mastery of food-related skills and knowledge. Better nutritional literacy should be associated with more appropriate dietary habits, which lead to a healthier society with fewer chronic non-communicable diseases. In our master's thesis, we wanted to assess the nutritional literacy and eating habits of 95 pupils from the 5th to the 9th grade from one of the Notranjska elementary schools, by the means of a questionnaire. Results were processed with the chi-square test, to determine whether poorer nutritional literacy is associated with poorer dietary habits, which was also our first hypothesis. We found that pupils with better nutritional literacy consume more vegetables and fruits and less frozen meals that are quickly fried in oil or heated in a microwave oven. Preference for less healthy foods is not associated with poorer nutritional literacy, as we found the opposite. Pupils with better nutritional literacy more often preferred the less optimal choice of food. Lastly, we wanted to determine whether the nutritional value of breakfast and lunch in the selected school corresponds to the guidelines for planning menus in kindergartens and schools. We found that the nutritional value is partially in line with the recommendations, as the values differ for energy values, as well as for the content of carbohydrates, fats and salt. By examining the representation of foods in the school menus, we found that pulses and whole grain foods were offered too few times for breakfast and lunch, and red meat too often, while the other foods were represented within the recommended limits. Overall, the quality of meals at the school is solid, as is the nutritional knowledge of the students.
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