Adequate availability of food in terms of quantity as well as quality, which depends on socioeconomic status, food practices, cultural traditions, and allocation of the food. The ability to digest, absorb, and utilize the food. This ability can be hampered by infection and by metabolic disorders. Poverty is considered the prime factor determining food consumption; however, cultural factors too play a strong role

1. Sohag
Topic: Nutrition in Adolescent
Girls

4. • Adequate availability of food in terms of quantity as
well as quality, which depends on socioeconomic
status, food practices, cultural traditions, and
allocation of the food.
• The ability to digest, absorb, and utilize the food. This
ability can be hampered by infection and by
metabolic disorders.
• Poverty is considered the prime factor determining
food consumption; however, cultural factors too play a
strong role

5. Nutritional problem
• Inappropriate dietary intakes during
adolescence can have several consequences. It
can:
• Potentially retard physical growth, reduce
intellectual capacity and delay sexual maturation
• Affect young people’s risk for a number of
immediate health problems such as iron
deficiency, under nutrition, stunting, bone health,
eating disorders and obesity.
• Affect concentration, learning and school
performance in school- going adolescents.

6. Cont…
• Has long-term implications. For example, low
calcium intake during adolescence is associated
with low bone density and an increased risk for
osteoporosis later in life
• Being overweight as an adolescent is associated
higher risk for diabetes as an adult
• High fat intake during adolescence and into
adulthood is associated with an increased risk of
heart disease
• Stunting and underweight among girls during
adolescence, continuing into early pregnancies,
increases the obstetric risk for women.

7. • Adolescents, particularly girls, are especially
vulnerable to iron deficiency due to low intake and
absorption of iron, and increased iron requirements
for growth and replacement of menstrual blood
losses
• Mild to moderate iron deficiency, even without
anemia, has adverse functional consequences
• During adolescence, women’s bodies develop and
prepare for future childbearing. Low iron stores in
young women of reproductive age makes them
susceptible to iron deficiency anaemia because
dietary intake alone is insufficient in most cases to
meet the iron requirements of pregnancy
Nutritional Anemia

8. • Anemia in adolescence puts a young woman
and her future child at risk of premature birth,
low birth weight, and increased perinatal
mortality.
• Infants born to iron-deficient mothers also
have higher prevalence of anemia in the first
six months of life. Maternal mortality is
increased in women whose hemoglobin levels
fall below 6-7 g/dl
Cont….

9. Guiding Principle for Appropriate
Complementary Feeding
• Continue frequent, on-demand breastfeeding until 2 years of age or
beyond;
• Practice responsive feeding (for example, feed infants directly and
assist older children. Feed slowly and patiently, encourage them to
eat but do not force them, talk to the child and maintain eye
contact);
• Practice good hygiene and proper food handling;
• Start at 6 months with small amounts of food and increase
gradually as the child gets older;
• Gradually increase food consistency and variety;
• Increase the number of times that the child is fed: 2–3 meals per
day for infants 6–8 months of age and 3–4 meals per day for infants
9–23 months of age, with 1–2 additional snacks as required;
• Use fortified complementary foods or vitamin-mineral supplements
as needed; and

11. Thank you