[Intake of leguminous in the Department of Santander, Colombia, 2000-2003].

With the objective of describing the participation and quantity (g) in the intake of leguminous in two geographical areas (metropolitan and rural), three surveys were re-analyzed, in them 571 subjects (148 scholars and 443 mothers) described their intake by the 24-hour dietary recall method. For the above mentioned, descriptive measures and confidence intervals were calculated with a reliability of 95% (IC 95%), the comparison of the intake among groups was carried out by t test and analysis of variance. 36.4% of the subjects consumes leguminous dry; differences were observed in the consumption of leguminous for geographical area; leguminous dry (p = 0.03) and green (p = 0.04). Of the group of leguminous, the dry ones represent the best resource to cover the energy necessities and nutritious; the biggest contribution to the daily recommendation is for folic acid, magnesium, thiamine, protein, phosphorus, iron and zinc. The contribution of the leguminous ones to the recommendations of nutrients was different for geographical area (p < 0.01). The low cost and the nutritional contribution of the leguminous dry, especially to the daily recommendations of folic acid and proteins are aspects to consider in their promotion.