Snacks Importance in Child’s Diet

Snacks are an important element of a toddler’s diet because they help them feel full and avoid hunger between meals, which improves their ability to concentrate. They also help children get used to a regular eating routine, which, along with correct diets, helps them maintain a healthy weight. Snacking can also prevent children from chronic illnesses such as cancer, hypertension, obesity, and heart disease. Finally, they assist children’s bodies to form strong bonds with nutritious foods, allowing them to distinguish hunger from other feelings and avoid eating out of boredom. Nutritional status in teens is influenced by the growth rate and body composition changes that occur after the onset of adolescence at the age of 12. Due to this massive growth and physical changes, teenagers require more foods that provide nutrients compared to children.

Breast Feeding

Breastfeeding is essential since beyond providing nourishment and protecting the baby from diseases by giving immunity. It also assists the mother shed off gained weight during pregnancy. When women breastfeed, they utilize fat cells stored in their body during pregnancy together with the nutrients from food to produce milk and feed the baby. As a result, weight loss still occurs even when the mother is advised to eat additional calories to keep their energy levels up.

Malnutrition in Elderly

The factors may include social isolation and poor social support, dementia or altered mental status, depression and poor functional status. Apart from nutritional help from a professional, the elderly man may need a social worker to cater for other physical and mental needs. Physical and cognitive challenges, as well as limited social support among elderly, require a combined effort of health professionals and family to address the malnutrition issue holistically.

Letter to My self

In the letter, I would advise myself to restrict myself on a healthy diet that is of low sugars and fewer junk foods. I would also recommend regular exercising to keep my body fit. A survey conducted by North-West University showed that staying healthy at this age is strongly linked with lower risk of middle and old age lifestyle diseases (Parker-Pope, 2017). Individuals who adopted five health habits in the twenties (moderate consumption of alcohol, lean BMI, regular exercising, healthy diet and no smoking) stayed healthy in their middle age.

References

Parker-Pope, T. (2017). The 8 Health Habits Experts Say You Need in Your 20s. Nytimes.com. Retrieved 5 October 2017, from https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/10/16/well/live/health-tips-for-your-20s.html