Adolescent nutrition: a neglected dimension

Abstract

The world’s adolescent population – 1200 million persons 10-19 years of age, or about 19% of the total population – faces a series of serious nutritional challenges not only affecting their growth and development but also their livelihood as adults. Yet adolescents remain a largely neglected, difficult-to-measure, and hard-to-reach population, in which the needs of adolescent girls in particular are often ignored. Adolescence is a particularly unique period in life because it is a time of intense physical, psychosocial, and cognitive development. Increased nutritional needs at this juncture relate to the fact that adolescents gain up to 50% of their adult weight, more than 20% of their adult height, and 50% of their adult skeletal mass during this period. Caloric and protein requirements are maximal. Increased physical activity, combined with poor eating habits and other considerations, e.g. menstruation and pregnancy, contribute to accentuating the potential risk for adolescents of poor nutrition. In summary, the main nutrition problems affecting adolescent populations worldwide include: