Nutrition in adolescence: Multiple challenges, lifelong consequences and the foundation for adult health – Medical Xpress

Share Article


Forget Password?
Learn more
share this!
12
3
Share
Email
February 9, 2022
by Jo-Anna B. Baxter,
Around the world, there are an estimated 1.2 billion adolescents between 10 and 19 years old. Although adolescence lies between childhood and adulthood, adolescents are neither big children, nor little adults. They have increased food requirements to support their rapid physical growth and maturation.

The steep increase in issues such as anemia, overweight and obesity in this age group puts nutritional issues among the greatest immediate threats to adolescent health. Exposure to from adolescence—ranging from actual food consumption to the —can set the stage for a ahead and good dietary habits.
The combined factors that shape diet can include personal factors, such as taste preferences and knowledge of healthy foods; social influences like friends, families and co-workers; and physical surroundings, including stores and advertising.
However, poverty and socio-economic inequalities remain important barriers to accessing diverse and nutritious foods. Supporting adolescents’ health and well-being is necessary to ensure their healthy development, but also offers lifelong and intergenerational benefits.
From a lifelong perspective, healthy eating behaviors adopted during adolescence, such as how much and what you eat, are more likely to continue into adulthood. Intergenerationally, things like pregnancy can negatively affect a girl’s growth, and can also impact fetal growth and development.
Forms of malnutrition in adolescents
Adolescents face forms of malnutrition on both ends of the spectrum, from being underweight and having micronutrient deficiencies, to being overweight and obesity.
On the undernutrition side, an estimated one in four adolescents experience anemia, a condition where someone does not have enough healthy red blood cells to carry adequate oxygen to their body’s tissues. Linked to limited intake of required vitamins and minerals or malabsorption from the gut, anemia can complicate growth and development.
Anemia can also decrease productivity, which is particularly important considering most adolescents go to school and/or work. The number of adolescents who experience undernutrition is disproportionately higher in low- and middle-income countries.
From an over- perspective, one in five adolescents is overweight or obese, and the proportion is increasing worldwide. These conditions are associated with a greater risk of developing a disease such as diabetes or cancer later in life, as well as chronic health issues such as hypertension.
Making nutritious food choices
Eating a balanced and diverse diet is key to meeting nutritional needs. Making good food choices is complicated by adolescents’ affinity for unhealthy foods, such as high-energy and ultra-processed foods like sugar-sweetened drinks and fast food. Compared to children, they have a greater say in what they eat, when and where they eat it, and can be increasingly influenced by social pressures.
Food environments are shaped by food availability, affordability, promotion, quality and safety. They impact food choices and are an important factor in what adolescents eat. Adolescents can face multiple food environments daily between the different settings they encounter such as home, school and workplace.
Food environments can be classified into three categories:
In resource-limited settings, found in both high- and low-income countries, poverty is a key factor driving nutritional inequalities—particularly micronutrient deficiencies. With the COVID-19 pandemic, economically vulnerable households worldwide have experienced increased food challenges and food insecurity. This presents yet another challenge to adolescent nutrition.
With colleagues in Pakistan, my research looked at social determinants of nutrition among late adolescent girls. One way we did this was using a diet scoring tool to assess the diversity of the food they ate. We found that the adolescent girls ate micronutrient-poor foods most of the time, and they commonly had highly sweetened tea, desserts and fried snacks.
We investigated the roles of different factors thought to affect adolescent nutrition, including , food insecurity, self-efficacy and decision-making autonomy. We found poverty was the most important factor predicting a limited diet. In this traditional food environment, addressing adolescent girls’ dietary quality will require two components:
Interventions to improve adolescent nutrition
The World Health Organization recognizes several evidence-informed interventions to improve nutrition during adolescence. These range from education to supplements, and vary depending on the setting, context and type of malnutrition.
For example, a nutrition intervention targeting adolescents in Canada would look different from one in Pakistan. However, interventions within either Canada or Pakistan could also differ, depending on geography (urban or rural) and resources. In settings with socio-economic barriers such as income and education, these must be addressed; intervening at the individual level alone does not get at the root cause of malnutrition.
A recent international study looked at the interventions in different countries to improve adolescents’ food and nutrition environments and increase their ability to make choices about their nutrition. It showed a need for more data and research, and saw a role for engaging adolescents to generate solutions. But the greatest reach may come from establishing collaborations across multiple sectors. This means extending beyond the usual players in health and nutrition to engage those in education, production and marketing (including social media), and agriculture.
Today’s adolescents face multiple threats to their nutrition. Accessing a healthy and safe diet is a basic need, yet nutritional inequalities are on the rise between and within countries. Addressing underlying inequalities and providing appropriate nutrition interventions for adolescents offer a long-term positive impact on their lives.


Explore further

Diet decisions can make teens feel good about themselves


Provided by The Conversation

Explore further
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.The Conversation
Facebook
Twitter
Email
Feedback to editors
15 hours ago
0
18 hours ago
0
Feb 07, 2022
0
Feb 04, 2022
0
Feb 03, 2022
0
8 hours ago
8 hours ago
10 hours ago
10 hours ago
11 hours ago
11 hours ago
12 hours ago
Feb 02, 2022
Jan 06, 2022
Feb 03, 2022
Jun 27, 2018
Aug 05, 2020
Jul 30, 2020
8 hours ago
11 hours ago
23 hours ago
Feb 08, 2022
Feb 08, 2022
Feb 08, 2022
Use this form if you have come across a typo, inaccuracy or would like to send an edit request for the content on this page. For general inquiries, please use our contact form. For general feedback, use the public comments section below (please adhere to guidelines).
Please select the most appropriate category to facilitate processing of your request
Thank you for taking time to provide your feedback to the editors.
Your feedback is important to us. However, we do not guarantee individual replies due to the high volume of messages.
Your email address is used only to let the recipient know who sent the email. Neither your address nor the recipient’s address will be used for any other purpose. The information you enter will appear in your e-mail message and is not retained by Medical Xpress in any form.

Get weekly and/or daily updates delivered to your inbox. You can unsubscribe at any time and we’ll never share your details to third parties.
More information Privacy policy
Daily science news on research developments and the latest scientific innovations
The latest engineering, electronics and technology advances
The most comprehensive sci-tech news coverage on the web
This site uses cookies to assist with navigation, analyse your use of our services, collect data for ads personalisation and provide content from third parties. By using our site, you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

source

You might also like

Surviving 2nd wave of corona
COVID-19

Surviving The 2nd Wave of Corona

‘This too shall pass away’ this famous Persian adage seems to be defeating us again and again in the case of COVID-19. Despite every effort

@voguewellness