Normal and Therapeutic Nutrition

Normal and Therapeutic Nutrition 3(2+1)

Lesson 16:Nutritional requirements for Adolescence

Food habits

Physical and psycho-social pressures influence adolescents eating habits. Boys fare better than girls in that their large appetite and sheer volume of food leads them to consume adequate nutrients. But the adolescent girls

• Gain weight easily as their physiologic sex differences are associated with fat deposits during this period and comparatively lack of physical activity.
• Social pressures and personal tensions concerning figure control will force them to follow unwise, self-imposed crash diets for weight loss.
• Self starvation may result in complex and far reaching eating disorders like anorexia nervosa and bulemia.

Teenagers have the reputation of having the worst eating habits. They may skip a meal. Or they may eat fast foods which are generally inadequate in calcium and vitamin A but high in calories, saturated fat and sodium.