Shane Norris, contributed to a Lancet Series on Adolescent nutrition

Adolescence is a time of rapid changes in both physical growth and development and cognitive and emotional capacities. There rightly has been much emphasis on early childhood nutrition. However, adolescence is an additional important phase of risks and opportunities for healthy nutrition with lifelong and intergenerational consequences. Yet, this age group has been neglected in national and global plans and policies. This Series highlights the effect of nutrition on adolescent growth and development, the role the food environment has on food choices, and which strategies and interventions might lead to healthy adolescent nutrition and growth.

How does the food you eat affect your growth and development?

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Abstract

Hungry? Should you eat an apple or potato chips? Does it really matter? It turns out that what you eat as a child and adolescent affects your growth and development. It can also affect your health as an adult! We wanted to understand the link between nutrition and adolescent growth. We did a review of different scientific studies to see what is currently known about this. We found that not eating enough food,

Introduction

During adolescence, you go through a transformation. From around ages ten to nineteen, all the systems in your body grow and mature. That is why what you eat is so important. Getting proper nutrition means that you eat: enough food and the right food to meet your body’s needs.

Undernutrition occurs when someone is not getting enough food. Overnutrition occurs when they eat too much. The body then stores this extra food as fat. That is why overnutrition can result in obesity. Malnutrition occurs when a person eats enough food, but not the right types.

To make sure adolescents are getting the right nutrients, we must first know what those are. That is why we did an extensive review of current scientific papers. We looked at studies that focused on different parts of the body, to see how nutrition affects each one.

eating the wrong foods, and eating too much food all affect the body’s systems. But the effects are different in each case. We also learned that the negative effects of poor nutrition aren’t permanent if they’re corrected at the right time.

The human body needs a variety of foods to meet all its needs for growth and development. Try to choose foods from several food groups, especially fruits, vegetables, protein, grains, and dairy.

Photo: Shutterstock more free science teaching resources at: www.ScienceJournalForKids.org https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)01590-7

1. Norris, S. A., Frongillo, E. A., Black, M. M., Dong, Y., Fall, C., Lampl, M., Liese, A. D., Naguib, M., Prentice, A., Rochat, T., Stephensen, C. B., Tinago, C. B., Ward, K. A., Wrottesley, S. V., & Patton, G. C. (2022). Nutrition in adolescent growth and development. The Lancet, 399(10320), 172–184.

1 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)01687-1 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)01593-2

2. Neufeld, L. M., Andrade, E. B., Ballonoff Suleiman, A., Barker, M., Beal, T., Blum, L. S., Demmler, K. M., Dogra, S., HardyJohnson, P., Lahiri, A., Larson, N., Roberto, C. A., Rodríguez-Ramírez, S., Sethi, V., Shamah-Levy, T., Strömmer, S., Tumilowicz, A., Weller, S., & Zou, Z. (2022). Food choice in transition: Adolescent autonomy, agency, and the food environment. The Lancet, 399(10320), 185–197.

3. Hargreaves, D., Mates, E., Menon, P., Alderman, H., Devakumar, D., Fawzi, W., Greenfield, G., Hammoudeh, W., He, S., Lahiri, A., Liu, Z., Nguyen, P. H., Sethi, V., Wang, H., Neufeld, L. M., & Patton, G. C. (2022). Strategies and interventions for healthy adolescent growth, nutrition, and development. The Lancet, 399(10320), 198–210.