Summary and conclusionAdolescence represents a window of opportunity to prepare for a healthy adult life. World’s adolescents population, 1200 million persons age from 10-19 years of a 19% of total world population. Egyptian adolescents aged 10-19 years represent 22% of the EgToday’s girls are the future mothers, they are in need of proper support, and care to achieve maximum preparation for motherhood capabilities and optimum reproduction. So the nutritional status prior to conception has a significant impact on the health ofThe aim of the study was to identify the impact of dietary knowledge and habits among secondary girls on their nutritional status.The total sample size of the study was 341 students from the first year of the secondary school girls at Zagazig City.A pilot study was performed for 20 students and necessary modification was done. This number of students excluded from the sample.The duration of data collection was 4 months, starting from November 2003 to the end of February 2004.A structure questionnaire composed of 3 parts was constructed to collect the following data: -1. Part I: - include:• Socio-demographic characteristics of students such as, age, residence, work, and education of parents…etc. Twenty questions to cover students’ nutritional knowledge. Nineteenth questions to determine the students’ dietary habits.2. Part II: - include:• 7 days diet recall list, was completed by each student.3. Part III: - include: Clinical assessment sheet which contains: -• Measurement of student body weight and height to detect BMI. Six questions to determine the general puberty characteristics of girls as age of menarche, days of period…etc. and observation table: to observe malnutrition signs through examination of studA scoring system for knowledge of students regarding to nutrition & diet was developed by the researcher, total score was 40 points. Students considered have good dietary knowledge if their score ≥20 and bad dietary knowledge if their scoreTotal score of food recall was 35 points. Student’s diet considered balanced if score ≥ 17.5 points and unbalanced ifTotal score of observed health status of the students was 34, students considered have no malnutrition signs if their score ≥ 17 and have malnutrition signs if score < 17 points.The results of the study revealed that: -• Half or more of the students had poor dietary knowledge and unsatisfied nutritional signs and more than half of the students consumed unbalanced diet.• Regarding to dietary habits, (46.3%) of the students had unsatisfactory dietary habits, and the rest had accepted or satisfactory level of dietary habits (29.1% &24.6% respectively).• Concerning to minerals and vitamins consumption, (71.6%) of the students were consumed minerals 6 days/week and only (35.8%) consumed vitamins 6 days/week.• One quarter of the students were under-weight and nearly one third of them had over-weight or obese. And (61.5%) of obese girls had unsatisfactory dietary habits.• Regarding to the diet, majority of students eats meals, and drink milk irregularly, (41.6%) go school without taken their breakfast. Most of the students consumed snacks, and two thirds of them consumed soft drinks daily.• More than half of the students didn’t attend with their family during serving food.• Nearly ¾ students their appetite affected by sadness or worriers condition by increase or decrease.Recommendations1- Health planners should establish and improve the different nutritional interventions at different stages of the life cycle particularly at childhood and adolescence.2- Nutrition education at schools should emphasize on improve the student’s dietary knowledge and teach them how to eat balanced diet according to the age, sex, and should take into consideration the different social class, culture, religious…etc among st3- School health team should organize mother class to improve the dietary knowledge of students’ mothers, learn them how to accommodate their budget and eat balanced diet also how to organize the time for their daughters to avoid busy time which prevent c4- Nutrition education for schools teachers and use them after good training to share in health education program concerning nutrition.5- Adequate pre-service training and in-service training for the school staff about nutrition, and how identify the nutritional disorders such as, chronic malnutrition, under-weight, over-weight and obesity as a common nutritional and psychological risk i6- Develop a specific nutritional education program for a special cases as anemic students, under-weight, over-weight, and obese students.7- Health education of students about healthy nutritional habits as take breakfast before going to school, and eat well balanced diet.8- Increase public awareness about well balanced diet, nutritional needs in every age group specially school age through mass media.9- Support the subject of home economy at school to learn girls practically how to prepare balanced meals contain all food elements.Summary and conclusionAdolescence represents a window of opportunity to prepare for a healthy adult life. World’s adolescents population, 1200 million persons age from 10-19 years of a 19% of total world population. Egyptian adolescents aged 10-19 years represent 22% of the EgToday’s girls are the future mothers, they are in need of proper support, and care to achieve maximum preparation for motherhood capabilities and optimum reproduction. So the nutritional status prior to conception has a significant impact on the health ofThe aim of the study was to identify the impact of dietary knowledge and habits among secondary girls on their nutritional status.The total sample size of the study was 341 students from the first year of the secondary school girls at Zagazig City.A pilot study was performed for 20 students and necessary modification was done. This number of students excluded from the sample.The duration of data collection was 4 months, starting from November 2003 to the end of February 2004.A structure questionnaire composed of 3 parts was constructed to collect the following data: -1. Part I: - include:• Socio-demographic characteristics of students such as, age, residence, work, and education of parents…etc. Twenty questions to cover students’ nutritional knowledge. Nineteenth questions to determine the students’ dietary habits.2. Part II: - include:• 7 days diet recall list, was completed by each student.3. Part III: - include: Clinical assessment sheet which contains: -• Measurement of student body weight and height to detect BMI. Six questions to determine the general puberty characteristics of girls as age of menarche, days of period…etc. and observation table: to observe malnutrition signs through examination of studA scoring system for knowledge of students regarding to nutrition & diet was developed by the researcher, total score was 40 points. Students considered have good dietary knowledge if their score ≥20 and bad dietary knowledge if their scoreTotal score of food recall was 35 points. Student’s diet considered balanced if score ≥ 17.5 points and unbalanced ifTotal score of observed health status of the students was 34, students considered have no malnutrition signs if their score ≥ 17 and have malnutrition signs if score < 17 points.The results of the study revealed that: -• Half or more of the students had poor dietary knowledge and unsatisfied nutritional signs and more than half of the students consumed unbalanced diet.• Regarding to dietary habits, (46.3%) of the students had unsatisfactory dietary habits, and the rest had accepted or satisfactory level of dietary habits (29.1% &24.6% respectively).• Concerning to minerals and vitamins consumption, (71.6%) of the students were consumed minerals 6 days/week and only (35.8%) consumed vitamins 6 days/week.• One quarter of the students were under-weight and nearly one third of them had over-weight or obese. And (61.5%) of obese girls had unsatisfactory dietary habits.• Regarding to the diet, majority of students eats meals, and drink milk irregularly, (41.6%) go school without taken their breakfast. Most of the students consumed snacks, and two thirds of them consumed soft drinks daily.• More than half of the students didn’t attend with their family during serving food.• Nearly ¾ students their appetite affected by sadness or worriers condition by increase or decrease.Recommendations1- Health planners should establish and improve the different nutritional interventions at different stages of the life cycle particularly at childhood and adolescence.2- Nutrition education at schools should emphasize on improve the student’s dietary knowledge and teach them how to eat balanced diet according to the age, sex, and should take into consideration the different social class, culture, religious…etc among st3- School health team should organize mother class to improve the dietary knowledge of students’ mothers, learn them how to accommodate their budget and eat balanced diet also how to organize the time for their daughters to avoid busy time which prevent c4- Nutrition education for schools teachers and use them after good training to share in health education program concerning nutrition.5- Adequate pre-service training and in-service training for the school staff about nutrition, and how identify the nutritional disorders such as, chronic malnutrition, under-weight, over-weight and obesity as a common nutritional and psychological risk i6- Develop a specific nutritional education program for a special cases as anemic students, under-weight, over-weight, and obese students.7- Health education of students about healthy nutritional habits as take breakfast before going to school, and eat well balanced diet.8- Increase public awareness about well balanced diet, nutritional needs in every age group specially school age through mass media.9- Support the subject of home economy at school to learn girls practically how to prepare balanced meals contain all food elements.