Nutrition and Eating

Food Pyramid

Introduction Healthy eating promotes physical growth and cognitive development during childhood and adolescence. Children and adolescents are nutritionally vulnerable and their nutrient and energy requirements per kilo of bodyweight are greater than adults. An adequate intake of fruit and vegetables, and breads and cereals, has a protective influence on health. For adolescents aged years, the minimum recommended daily consumption is 3 serves of fruit, 4 serves of vegetables, and 5 serves of breads and cereals, depending on their overall diet

A diet high in fat and sugar is associated with increased health risk, which is why it is important to monitor the type of milk consumed, as well as the consumption of fast foods, snacks, soft drinks, cordial, energy drinks, and fruit juice. Water is an essential nutrient for life. All biochemical reactions occur in water. It fills the spaces in and between cells and helps form structures of large molecules such as protein and glycogen. Water is also required for digestion, absorption and transportation and as a solvent for nutrients, and for elimination of waste products A child’s fluid needs are best met by water and milk. Common alternatives to water, such as fruit juice and cordial and soft drinks, have high sugar content, which can contribute to excessive energy intake, displacement of other nutrients, and dental caries.

Societies Perception Society's perception on adolescence Nutrition is a growing concern through out Australia as statistics show we are more obese then ever and diabetes are on the rise. Teenagers are usually seen to be the culprits of skipping meals due to their social life's They are seen to not be worried and concerned for the health eating a lot of fast food such as maccas and KFC. On the other hand there is a large group of adolescence that eat extremely healthy and have a good knowledge and understanding of good nutrition

Trends Most teenagers miss a lot of meals with the most common being breakfast due to their social life's, with plenty of teenagers not even having breakfast the most important meal of day before they attend school. Leading them to have a high intake of sugar through out the day through various junk foods, fizzy drinks and more recently energy drinks to make up for lost energy levels being missed through breakfast. A lot think that if they just start to eat healthy when they get older that everything will be fine so they don’t worry about eating healthy or good nutrition at a young age which will carry on to health problems in later life. A lot tend to go through phases where for a few weeks will eat healthy and then the next couple will let themselves go and eat unhealthy without even realising.

Prevalence In 2008, among students aged years, daily consumption of fruit was: no serves (2.2 per cent), 1 serve or less (19.3 per cent), 2 serves (32.1 per cent), 3 serves (22.9 per cent), 4 serves (13.1 per cent), 5 serves (5.4 per cent), and 6 or more serves (5.0 per cent). In 2008, among students aged years, daily consumption of vegetables was: no serves (2.3 per cent), 1 serve or less (19.1 per cent), 2 serves (29.8 per cent), 3 serves (24.3 per cent), 4 serves (12.9 per cent), 5 serves (7.0 per cent), and 6 serves or more (4.5 per cent). In 2008, among students aged years, 8.1 per cent did not usually consume water in a day, 4.6 per cent usually consumed 1 cup a day, 11.6 per cent 2 cups, 18.3 per cent 3 cups, 15.6 per cent 4 cups, 13.4 per cent 5 cups, 9.5 per cent 6 cups, 4.4 per cent 7 cups, and 14.6 per cent 8 or more cups a day. In 2008, among students aged years, 19.0 per cent had not consumed a fast food meal in the last week, 34.7 per cent had consumed a fast food meal once in the last week, 24.4 per cent twice, 12.2 per cent 3 times, 4.3 per cent 4 times, 2.2 per cent 5 times, 1.1 per cent 6 times, and 2.1 per cent 7 or more times a week.

Risk Behaviors With Nutrition There are a number of risk’s involved with adolescence Nutrition, bad diets can result in Obesity increasing risk of heart attack and other disease’s, also including diabetes which is where a person has no insulin in there body and can not turn glucose (sugar) into energy this is a chronic illness lasting the persons whole life.

Risk Increase: The risk of bad nutrition increases in the adolescence community due to so many junk food adds that set out to target that age group therefore them buying the food which then leads to health issues that can last them a lifetime. Risk Decrease: The Australian government recognizes that the adolescence health and nutrition is a problem leading to diabetes and obesity and they are continually thinking of ideas to put a stop to it such as banning junk food adds during children's programs sending people to schools and putting in laws of what school canteens are able to sell all in a bid to reduce health related problems amongst Australian adolescence.

Is society's perception accurate? Yes its true as the common thoughts of the society are true that teenagers skip meals eat junk food and are beginning to increase their intake of popular energy drinks. But there are also many teenagers that strive for a good health and nutrition which is usually undermined as the newspapers tend to only highlight the bad cases and not so much the good.