Nutrition And Changes Essay

Nutrition and Changes throughout the Life Spanned.

Nutritional needs change throughout various stages of life. Nutrition is dependent on many other factors such as physiological, behavioral and social changes. With these changes occurring in humans it puts them at risk for many diseases when proper nutrition is not received. Let’s go ahead and take a look on what factors can increase our risk for disease.

Starting at preconception it is very important to have proper nutrition, not only for the mother but child as well. During this time period woman will start their menstruation cycle. This leading to some behavioral changes such as moodiness or higher food intake. This has social effects such as not getting along with family members due to

Many physiological changes occurred at this time. Increased appetite and food intake is a major physiological and behavioral change. This can also lead to behavioral changes such as cravings for certain foods. This can increase chances of developing an eating disorder called Pica. This is when women start eating nonfood items such as clay, dirt or laundry soaps. This increases risk of developing lead poisoning and many other diseases. One intervention that has help women with this disorder is offering powered milk in replacement of laundry starch.(120, Brown) Pregnant women do have social changes such as being too tired to hang around with friends and family. Other issue can be weight gain leading them to have low self-esteem in return causing them to not eat as much and not get all vital nutrition in order to have a healthy pregnancy and

During this time children have growths spurts. Although children’s BMI is usually at minimum during this stage, during the growth spurts their BMI will increase. This leading to a behavioral change of increased appetite. It is important for parents to teach children at this age to make healthy eating choices. Becoming over weight as a child can lead to early puberty and looking older than their actually age. This can cause parents and other adults to treat the child as if they are older. A great intervention for this issue is the Nutrition integrity in schools. This ensures that children are being feed foods that are consistent with the U.S. dietary guidelines for Americans and the Dietary References intakes.

In the stage of adolescences, there are many physiological, behavioral and social changes going on. The social changes play a heavy role in adolescent nutrition. At this age the biggest concern is just fitting in at school. This can cause them to worry about gaining weight which is considered a normal psychological change during this period. This can lead to an eating disorder called anorexia nervosa. Self-starvation and fears of being fat is commonly seen in these adolescents. Early recognition and seeking professional help is the most affective prevention. (394,