Knowledge of food groups among mothers of preschool children in a rural area of Villupuram district, Tamilnadu.

Introduction: Nutrition is defined as the process by which the organism utilizes food. Malnutrition is a major public health problem as both under nutrition and obesity has serious negative health implications. Childhood malnutrition adversely impacts the overall lifelong health of individuals by affecting growth and development. Materials and Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted among the mothers of under five children in Anaichikuppam, a rural area of Villupuram district during the month of November 2013. A total of 157 mothers of pre school children were interviewed in the study. The mothers were asked to fill six food groups in the appropriate boxes based on the requirements per day in the “The food guide pyramid”. The food items present in the food pyramid were given in the questionnaire and asked to mark in the appropriate boxes based on their priority. Results: A total of 157 mothers were interviewed in the study. Maximum number of mothers marked fats and oils (66%) against the appropriate box in the food pyramid. Majority of the mothers (92%) had wrong perception about cereals and marked it wrongly in the food pyramid. Conclusion: The knowledge of the mothers regarding nutrition is fairly acceptable in our study population. More emphasis needs to be given to fruits, vegetables and cereals since least priority has been given to these food groups.