NUTRITION DURING ADOLESCENCE

 Introduction

Physical growth during adolescence plays a considerable role in deciding food requirements. Adolescents undergo a second large growth spurt before reaching adulthood.

 This rapid growth is accompanied by sexual maturation. The remarkable body changes in adolescent period occur from hormonal effects regulating the development of boys and girls characteristics. 

In this phase of a girl/boy food plays very important part in fulfil the need of body changes.

Advice For Promoting Good Eating Habits

Adolescents both girls/boys should have three regular meals based on a variety of foods. Use the three food groups as a guide to select foods. This is the only sure way by which they can get all the necessary nourishment each day. Good mixtures of foods should be eaten at breakfast, lunch and dinner. 

Breakfast 

We all know among all three meals breakfast is the most important one. A healthy breakfast helps students to concentrate on their studies properly. And skipping breakfast daily can lead to poor health and concentration. 

Idli + coconut chutney + milk + seasonal fruit

Chapati + vegetable + milk + seasonal fruit

Dosa + groundnut chutney + milk + seasonal fruit

Bread + eggs + milk + seasonal fruit

Lunch

If a adolescent is in school, a good lunch should be provided every day. It should include good mixture of foods following the principle of balanced diet. A well planned packed lunch is cheaper, clean and more nourishing than the snack foods sold at school. 

A good cooked lunch for an adolescent could consist:

Rice + dal + vegetable + curd + seasonal fruit

Meat + chapati + vegetable + curd + seasonal fruit

Veg pulao/ biryani + curd + seasonal fruit

Dinner

Having dinner is the most calm and free time where adolescent can spent time with their family. Dinner should contains all three groups of foods. After dinner adolescent have milk because their meal should contains plenty of iron and calcium.

Rice + dal + vegetable + seasonal fruit and vegetable salad

Meat + chapati + vegetables + seasonal fruit and vegetable salad

Fish curry + rice/chapati + salad 

And milk after having dinner.

Snacks

Nourishing snacks for adolescent includes:

Groundnut, jaggery sweets, fruits salad, fruits custard, besan laddu etc..

Importance of Iron During Adolescence 

Adolescents should eat many different kinds nutritious food every day. They should pay special attention to foods with plenty of iron. As we know food rich in iron are meat, liver, whole pulses, green leafy vegetables etc.. 

To help the body use iron well from foods adolescents should eat fruits like oranges/guava/amla in their meal. These fruits are rich in vitamin C are specially good for this purpose.

When there will be the deficiency of iron adolescents will become anemic specially girls.

Conclusion

From this blog we conclude that adolescent needs a lot of concentration towards their diet. Because when a child hits puberty there are many changes in their body to maintain their health good food is needed. Some girls who wants to look slim, may start dieting not knowing its serious consequences on health. These practices may be bad for their health. They may become undernourished and even seriously ill if they do not eat a proper nourishing diet.