Objective: This descriptive study was performed to determine the nutritional status of third and fourth grade students of elementary schools in villages and towns in regard to adequate and balanced diets and to develop practical suggestions in accordance with the results. Methods: The study was carried out in 5 elementary schools in the villages and towns of Akşehir district in Konya province. Data were collected between October 1st and November 28 in 2010. The questionnaire constructed to determine the nutritional status in regard to adequate and well-balanced diet of third and fourth grade elementary school students in villages and towns consisted of two parts and 27 questions. Chi-square test was used to analyse the nutritional status of students according to gender; significance level was taken as 0.05 and SPSS 17 statistical software package was used for analyses. Results: The students were between 9 and 12 years of age. The average number of siblings was found as 2.78±1.02. Of the students, 73.0% stated eating 3 meals a day, whereas the same value for male students was 68.9%. While 46.9% of the female students expressed often buying buttermilk and milk, and 26.6% of them buying fruit juice; 38.5% of the male students bought buttermilk and milk and 20.3% of them toast, sandwiches and bagel from the school canteen. While 39.5% of the female students rarely consumed foods like candy and chocolate, 12.6% of the male students consumed these foods daily, and there was a significant relationship between the consumption of foods like candy and chocolate and gender (p<0.05). Conclusion: It was concluded that in addition to skipping lunch and breakfast, the percentage of consuming fast food type foods is high among the students and there are differences between the genders in terms of eating habits. The consumption of foods regarded as unhealthy was found to be high especially among male students