Introduction:

Eating healthy can help reduce preventable chronic diseases and improve quality of life in old age. The objective was to describe the eating habits of school adolescents from public, subsidized and private schools nationwide.

Materials and Methods:

It is a non-probabilistic quantitative cross-sectional descriptive study, the instrument used was the Global School Health Survey, for adolescents from 12 departments, the survey was applied in March 2017. 3149 systematically enrolled students were included with a proportional probability to grades Eight-Third year.

Results:

The eating behavior was characterized by the low consumption of fruits and vegetables in portions of five or more times a day, which was only 7.5%. 61.7% consumed sugary soft drinks one or more times a day, and 15% of the students consumed fast foods three or more days a week.

Conclusion:

The eating behavior of adolescents is characterized by a high consumption of foods that are markers of an unhealthy diet, with a higher proportion among the youngest.

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