A influência da formação em Educação Física na expressão da neofobia alimentar

Introduction: Food neophobia is an aversion to consumption or inability to know new foods. This behavior occurs from childhood to adulthood because it is associated with habits, customs and culture being influenced by family and technology, thus modulating the choice of unknown food. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the influence of the academic formation in Physical Education in the expression of neophobic eating behavior among university students. Materials and Methods: This was an exploratory, descriptive, cross-sectional, quantitative-based field study involving 105 students of Physical Education and Nutrition. Results and discussions: The majority of participants in the Physical Education course were male and those of Nutrition were female, no interaction was identified between the course the student was taking and the training period, in general, the expression of food neophobia, as measured by the food neophobia scale, was not different among Nutrition and Physical Education students in the two evaluated periods. An isolated effect of the period was found, whether it was a beginning or a conclusion, but no effect was found on the courses. The analyzes showed that the students of Physical Education and Nutrition who were completing the course had higher values in the scale when compared to the participants. Conclusion: It was observed that both the academic training in Physical Education and Nutrition and the acquired knowledge along the course seem to have little influence on the expression of food neophobia.