Contemporary Issues in Food and Nutrition for Adolescents Essay

Contemporary Issues in Food and Nutrition for Adolescents The magnificence of establishing health promoting practices during childhood and adolescence has long been recognized by nutritionists and other health professionals. The purpose of this paper is to canvass further the issues relating to adolescents diets and contributing factors. Contributing factors accommodate the increase of fast viands drug addiction, unconventional repast patterns and neediness of exercise. During adolescence, the influences on eating habits ar numerous.The growing liberty of adolescents, increased participation in social intent and a prevalently busy schedule of activities have a great impact on nutrition intake.? In the September 2007 issue of health Promotion International, a position of 18,486 secondary initiate students at 322 schools across all Australian states (except Western Australia) has found that a evidential proportion of students crepuscle short of current, national dietary and physical activity recommendations for teenagers. A new study suggests that as teens give in adulthood, they are more likely to skip meals, resulting in a very unconventional meal pattern. eat is frequently neglected and omitted more often by teenagers as they enter high school as they see it as an unnecessary hassle. These diets are likely to be bizarre and unbalanced. Though appetite is great, meal times tend to be irregular due to pre-occupation with school, other social activities or even a part time job. Therefore snacking in between meals is common. Skipping breakfast, for example, can lead to greater levels of hunger later in the day, causing overeating, or the choosing of heavy foods that fill you up faster, but whitethorn lack nutritionary values.For teenage girls, lunch is usually skipped as a way of controlling weight. As adolescents go with puberty, they are bound to feel more pressured by their peers about the shape and size of their body, sexual development, and their general appearance. Due to this pressure, they are more likely to be self-conscious, resulting in unstable diets. These diets are usually similarly caused by the increasing amount of junk food consumption. The increase in junk food consumption is an important factor in a teens diet.This could be due to the increased independence and responsibility for food preparation that adolescents face during this developmental transition. Fast food, such as McDonalds, is a quick, easily and tasty option for aging adolescents who may have a busy day-to-day schedule and who may be used to relying on parents to prepare their meals. Also published in the September issue of Health Promotion International, a survey indicates that secondary school students between the ages of 12 and 17 are consuming far too much junk food and not enough vegetables and fruit.The survey found that merely 20% of students were meeting the insouciant requirement of four serves of vegetables while 39% were eatin g the recommended three daily serves of fruit. Our survey found consumption of unhealthy/non-core foods was high, with 46% of students having fast food meals at least doubly a week, 51% eating snack foods four or more times per week, and 44% having high-energy drinks four or more times per week, states Dr Victoria clear, from the Centre of Behavioural Research in Victoria.The survey findings also highlight the need for secondary students to spend more time being physically mobile and less time in front of the television and computer. The problem of childhood obesity has recently skyrocketed, in the first place in the Western nations. Established in an online obligate on the website For Parents, By Parents, approximately 16-33% of children and teens are considered obese. part obesity is one of the easiest medical conditions to diagnosis, it can be one of the most difficult to treat.The same online article also states that poor diet and lack of exercise results in over 300,000 deaths every year. We found that solely 14% of students engaged in recommended levels of physical activity and about 70% exceeded recommended levels of sedentary behaviour, Dr Victoria White once again states. Current recommendations state teenagers should do at least 60 minutes of see intensity physical activity every day and spend no more than 2 hours per day using electronic media for entertainment.Unhealthy weight increases during adolescence have been associated with fasting insulin, increased levels of cholesterol and risk factors for feel disease and systolic blood pressure in young adulthood. Since adolescent obesity is a significant predictor of overweight status in adulthood, it is important to identify dietary behaviours early on that are associated with unhealthy weight gain in order to create effective interventions.It has been investigated that the three of the largest factors in adolescents diets include their unconventional meal pattern, increasing of junk food con sumption and lack of exercise. The increased snack food intake and lack of required exercise result in a very disproportioned and unbalanced diet, which lastly leads to other fatal diseases such as risk of heart failure. Therefore, adolescents diet should be observed carefully to avoid an unhealthy epidemic.