Calcium Intake in Adolescent Girls

Nutrition During Adolescence

• 24% of 11-14 year-old girls and 19% of 15-18 year-old girls have low calcium intakes, which can lead to increased risk of osteoporosis.
• Calcium needs are greatest during adolescence due to rapid bone growth, and absorption is higher during this stage than in childhood and adulthood.
• Good sources of calcium include milk, dairy products, green leafy vegetables, and fish with soft bones.

Importance of Zinc

• Zinc is essential for growth and sexual development.
• Food sources of zinc include meats, such as beef, lamb, and pork.

Vitamin A

• Vitamin A is essential for eye development and immune function.
• Food sources of vitamin A include dairy foods, dark green vegetables, and orange/red fruits and vegetables.

B Vitamins

• B vitamins, including B6, B2, thiamin, and niacin, are important for carbohydrate and protein breakdown, and nervous system function.
• Vitamin B12 and folate are crucial for the nervous system and cell production.
• Foods containing B vitamins include meats, cereals, and vegetables.
• Vitamin B2 intake is inadequate in girls aged 11-18 years.

Nutrition-Related Problems

• Childhood morbidity and mortality rates have decreased, but new dangers have arisen.
• There is a worrying increase in the prevalence of overweight and obese children and adolescents.

Stages of Development

• There are four stages of development: biological, cognitive, psychological, and social.

Determinants of Food Choice

• Neophobia and exposure, social modeling, and peer influence can affect food choice in children.
• Parent-child characteristics, such as temperament and maternal characteristics, can also play a role.

Fussy Eating

• Fussy eating is more common in males than females and tends to run in families.
• It decreases with age and is often described as "picky" eating.

Healthy Eating Index (HEI)

• The HEI is an indicator of diet quality, assessing variety and quantity of foods and compliance with dietary recommendations.
• Children aged 7-9 have lower diet quality than younger children, and most children do not meet recommended intakes of vegetables or meat.

Adolescence

• Adolescence is a transitional stage of physical and psychological development, typically occurring from puberty to legal adulthood.
• It is a critical period of growth and development, and good nutrition is essential.
• During adolescence, the need for most nutrients increases, and appetite tends to increase as well.

Growth and Development

• Growth spurts typically begin around age 10 in girls and 12 in boys, resulting in an average increase of 23cm in height and 20-26 kg in weight.
• Body composition also changes during puberty, with boys' proportion of fat decreasing and girls' proportion increasing.

Team Nutrition Initiative

• Provides training and technical assistance to school nutrition professionals to prepare and serve nutritious meals that meet the Program meal pattern requirements and appeal to children.
• Offers web-based resources through the Team Nutrition Resource Library to help children and school nutrition professionals understand the link between diet and health.
• Provides free printed copies of certain Team Nutrition materials to state and local Program operators.

Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program

• Introduces children at participating low-income elementary schools to a variety of fresh produce they may not have otherwise had the opportunity to taste.

Farm to School Initiative

• Helps school food authorities incorporate fresh, local produce into school lunch menus.

National School Lunch Program (NSLP)

• Established by the National School Lunch Act of 1946.
• Designed to improve the nutrition of children, especially those from low-income families, and increase the use of foods in surplus production.
• Provides nutritionally balanced, low-cost or no-cost lunches to children each school day.
• Administered by the USDA Food and Nutrition Service.
• About 7.1 million children participated in the NSLP in its first year.

Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)

• Established in 1974 to safeguard the health of low-income women, infants, and children up to age 5 who are at nutritional risk.
• Provides nutritious foods to supplement diets, nutrition education, and referrals to health and other social services.

Other Nutrition Programs

• The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP): supplements the diets of low-income needy persons, including elderly people, by providing emergency food and nutrition assistance.
• USDA Foods Processing: allows State Distributing Agencies and Eligible Recipient Agencies to contract with commercial food processors to convert raw bulk USDA Foods into more convenient, ready-to-use end products.
• The Food Stamp Program: authorized under the Food Stamp Act of 1964, increases the purchasing power of low-income persons to buy more food.
• Nutrition Program for the Elderly: established in 1972, provides nutritionally adequate, low-cost meals with social and rehabilitative services for persons over 60.
• Maternal and Child Health Programs: established in 1935, helps states improve health services for mothers and children.

National School Lunch Program (NSLP)

• Children can qualify for free or reduced-price school lunch through participation in certain Federal Assistance Programs, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
• Children who are homeless, migrant, runaway, or foster children are also categorically eligible for free meals.
• Children enrolled in a federally-funded Head Start Program or a comparable State-funded pre-kindergarten program are also categorically eligible for free meals.
• Children can also qualify for free or reduced-price school meals based on household income and family size.
• Children from families with incomes at or below 130% of the Federal poverty level are eligible for free meals.
• Those with incomes between 130% and 185% of the Federal poverty level are eligible for reduced-price meals.
• Schools may not charge children more than 40 cents for a reduced-price lunch.

USDA Foods and Support

• Participating schools receive USDA Foods, which are purchased by USDA and provided through the NSLP.
• Schools can also receive bonus USDA Foods as they are available from surplus agricultural stocks.
• The variety of USDA Foods schools receive depends on available quantities and market prices.
• USDA's Food and Nutrition Service provides training and technical assistance to school nutrition professionals through its Team Nutrition initiative.
• The Team Nutrition Resource Library has web-based resources available to help children and school nutrition professionals understand the link between diet and health.

Additional Support for Schools

• USDA's Food and Nutrition Service helps school food authorities incorporate fresh, local produce into school lunch menus through the Farm to School initiative.
• The Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program introduces children at participating low-income elementary schools to a variety of produce they otherwise might not have the opportunity to taste.

Other Programs

• The Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) provides nutritious foods to supplement diets, nutrition education, and referrals to health and other social services.
• The Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP) works to improve the health of low-income pregnant women, new mothers, infants, children, and the elderly by supplementing their diets with nutritious USDA Foods.
• The Food Aid Program provides U.S. agricultural commodities to feed millions of hungry people in needy countries through direct donations and concessional programs.
• The Food Distribution Disaster Assistance Program supplies USDA Foods to disaster relief organizations such as the Red Cross and the Salvation Army for mass feeding or household distribution.
• The Food Purchase Program purchases a variety of food products in support of the National School Lunch program and other Federal Feeding programs.
• The McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program helps promote education, child development, and food security for some of the world's poorest children.
• The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) supplements the diets of low-income needy persons, including elderly people, by providing emergency food and nutrition assistance.
• The USDA Foods Processing program allows State Distributing Agencies and Eligible Recipient Agencies to contract with commercial food processors to convert raw bulk USDA Foods into more convenient, ready-to-use end products.
• The Food Stamp Program was authorized under the Food Stamp Act of 1964 to increase the purchasing power of low-income persons so that they can buy more food in a greater variety.
• The Nutrition Program for the Elderly provides nutritionally adequate, low-cost meals with social and rehabilitative services for persons over 60.
• The Maternal and Child Health Programs are designed to help reduce the number of mentally retarded and physically handicapped children resulting from complications of pregnancy, and to reduce maternal and infant mortality by providing special care for high-risk maternity patients and their infants from birth to one year.

Eating Disorders

• An eating pattern that becomes harmful to health, including Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa.

Binge Eating Disorder

• Characterized by recurrent binge eating and feelings of loss of control over eating that have lasted at least 6 months.
• Triggered by emotions such as frustration, anger, depression, anxiety, and permission to eat forbidden foods.

Demographics

• Can affect anyone, but most likely to affect teenage females.
• Estimated 1 million people affected in the UK, with the majority being 12 to 25 year-old women.

Causes and Risk Factors

• Genetic makeup may have a small impact.
• Linked to emotions such as boredom, anxiety, anger, loneliness, shame, or sadness.
• Often a combination of many factors, events, feelings, or pressures, including low self-esteem, family relationships, sexual or emotional abuse.

Anorexia Nervosa

• Characterized by a psychological loss or rejection of appetite, followed by self-starvation.
• Related to a distorted body image and social pressures commonly associated with puberty.
• Involves significant weight loss of 15 percent or more of ideal body weight.

Bulimia Nervosa

• Characterized by binge eating and purging from the body by vomiting, or misuse of laxatives, diuretics, or enemas.
• Patients are typically at normal weight or above, unlike anorexia nervosa.