How Diet Impacts Childhood Development

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Children look up to primary caregivers, be it family, teachers, babysitters or peers, as role models. It is important to teach good eating habits by adults demonstrating to children. Parents and caregivers are responsible to help instill these lessons to become habits instead of just occasional instructions. A healthy diet that follows the food pyramid and calorie consciousness allows for flourishing growth in children. Good nutrition is vital for mental, emotional, physical, cognitive development, and reproductive health. Even before birth a proper diet is essential to nourish the fetus so it may be healthy. The needs of a growing child are fast and the nutritional diet needs to equal the ratio. The World Health Organization declares "malnutrition is globally the most important risk factor for illness and death, contributing to more than half of deaths in children worldwide; child malnutrition was associated with 54% of deaths in children in developing countries in 2001"(WHO, 2004).

Children deserve for their caregivers to help achieve highest levels of nutrition. They make choices on what is available and what is familiar to them. If a child sees an adult always eating candy then of course the child will turn to candy first instead of if the adult would eat an apple as their first choice. A balanced diet is one that includes all the food groups. Here is the list of food groups on the food pyramid from most important to least. Bread, Cereal, Rice and Pasta group is on the bottom and you should get six to eleven serving a day of this group but a child only needs five to nine servings. The next group is the vegetable group. This group is kind of tricky because if you cook most vegetables it actually loses the nutrients and vitamin...

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...inding out your diet play a key role in IQ percentage.

Using the food pyramid along with a conciseness of calorie intake will provide the best opportunity for children’s overall growth. Teaching a healthy lifestyle gives children the chance to thrive in a combination of learning good habits that they can pass on to their children. This is very imperative since our children today is our future leaders for tomorrow.

References

Nutrition. (2004). In Encyclopedia of Women's Health. Retrieved from http://www.credoreference.com/entry/sprwh/nutrition

World Health Organization. (2011). Malnutrition. Retrieved from

http://www.who.int/child_adolescent_health/topics/prevention_care/child/nutrition/malnutrition/

Vitamins and Trace Elements. (2000). In Cambridge World History of Food. Retrieved from http://www.credoreference.com/entry/cupfood/vitamins_and_trace_elements

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