Nutrition is one of the most essential and necessary parts of life. During the day, a person receives more than two thousand calories from which the body gets vital elements and vitamins. Humans start to get food in the womb in the first days and continue to eat until the end of life. However, nutrition can have both a positive and negative impact on health. Proper nutrition can prevent diseases, have a good effect on academic performance, and improve mental well-being. Junk food brings a bad mood, a feeling of drowsiness, and even a deterioration in academic or work performance. Throughout human life, nutrition plays a key role in the development of the body, but it affects the progress of the baby’s organism and brain in childhood. Therefore, poor eating habits such as insufficient or high intake can cause a child obesity, problems with oncology, and eating disorders.
One of the most common results of poor nutrition in children is obesity. Many reasons can affect obesity and provoke an increase in fat in the young generation. The study conducted by Fuller et al. (2017) showed “Three obesity-related eating habits: decreased fruit and vegetable, increased fruit juice and sugar-sweetened beverage, and increased fast-food intake in children between 1 and 2 years of age.” (p. 500). Most often, overeating fast food and high-calorie foods such as hamburgers, chips, soda, pizza, and others may cause obesity. Such food is delicious but harmful to the whole body because it does not bring positive substances or vitamins. Moreover, they contribute to the weakening of the immune system and fat deposition. A sedentary lifestyle can also cause obesity. If the child is inactive, rarely walks in the street, and does not adhere to the schedule of the meals, then his body begins to retain the accumulation of fat and substances to support the body. However, this way, he or she begins to get fat.
To conclude, obesity in children directly depends on poor nutrition. Poor eating habits as insufficient or high intake can lead to problems with oncology in children. Many young girls believe that genetics is one of the leading causes of cancer. However, scientists have found that even the chosen diet and nutrition can affect the development of cancer cells (Green, 2017). For example, children should consume nuts, beans, vegetables, fruits, and cereals. These products will improve the nutritional diet and contribute to the rapid and healthy development of the young body. However, instead of eating nutritious and necessary foods, the younger generation reduces its consumption. According to Green (2017), “Only 39 percent of children ages 2-17 meet the dietary recommendation for fiber… almost 80 percent of adolescent females do not consume enough calcium…” (p. 1). Therefore, nutritionists recommend that parents pay attention to the child’s diet and start following a healthy diet. To sum up, one of the causes of cancer at a young age is insufficient and unbalanced nutrition.
Eating disorders in children are caused by poor nutrition. Eating disorders are not only physical diseases but also psychological ones because they are often based on problems with self-esteem (Bould et al., 2017). Science still does not fully know the factors of diseases. However, experts suggest that this is all a combination of personal, family, cultural, and sometimes genetic factors. Life difficulties, anger, stress, and low self-esteem can be the causes of any eating disorders.
The development of social networks led to cultivating thinness and ideal, by standards of popular individualities, body parameters. Therefore, the younger generation strives to lose weight and become thinner but instead gets stomach problems due to an unbalanced diet and even anorexia. Bould et al. (2017) confirmed that “Eating disorders are relatively common among adolescent girls… a lifetime prevalence among 19-year-old women of 5.7% compared with 19-year-old 1.2% in men…” (p. 1). It is important to note that an eating disorder can lead to health problems and death. In children, eating disorders are revealed in weight changes, conscious skipping meals, inability to grow in height, feeling cold, and others (Bould et al., 2017). The treatment of this mental and physical disease is a long and complex process that, in some cases, can be lifelong. To conclude, poor nutrition can be the reason for eating disorders in children.
To summarize, nutrition is a process that makes it possible to stabilize weight, helps to get rid of diseases, and contributes to the restoration of intellectual and physical energy. Moreover, many processes in the child’s body depend on nutrition. It can give not only beneficial substances, but it can have both positive impacts on health and adverse effects on the organism. However, if the food is turned into a menu of fast food, sugar, and harmful products, the child’s body will not receive the vitamin and will stop developing. Along with unhealthy food, a bad mood, failures in school, and health problems will come. Thus, poor eating habits such as insufficient or high intake can develop obesity, cancer problems, and eating disorders in the young generation.
References
Bould, H., Newbegin, C., Stewart, A., Stein, A., & Fazel, M. (2017). Eating disorders in children and young people. BMJ, 359(8133), j5245. Web.
Fuller, A., Maguire, J. L., Carsley, S., Chen, Y., Lebovic, G., Omand, J., Parkin, P., & Birken, C. S. (2017). Difficulty buying food, BMI, and eating habits in young children. Canadian Journal of Public Health, 108(5-6), 497-502. Web.
Green, C. (2017). How poor eating habits early in life can lead to breast cancer. Oncology Times, 39(9), 1,9,31. Web.