Canteens and Cafeterias Unit

Faculty of Health Sciences Message

Importance of a Healthy Diet

Starting in mother’s womb, a healthy diet is an important factor for growing up, body development and maintaining general health. As eating habits gained during the adolescence period is for lifetime, it is important to adopt a healthy, sufficient and balanced diet during this period. A balanced diet has an important effect on bone and brain development and school performance as well as on the chronic diseases that may occur later in life. A sufficient and balanced diet prevents heart diseases, hyperlipidemia, obesity, cancer and osteoporosis that may occur during the adult period.

Additionally, there is strong evidence that an insufficient and imbalanced diet has a negative effect on overall school success regarding students’ concentration, attention , perception, learning and overall academic behavior.

Energy and Food

Energy: Daily energy requirements in adolescence period depend on the activity level, basal metabolic rate and the rate of growing up and development. Males in the adolescence period need more energy as they are taller, heavier and have more non-fat body mass compared to females in the adolescence period. Energy requirements of adolescents who are regularly involved in sports or exercise are more than those who are not.

Proteins: Proteins are vitally important for building new tissues and tissue renewal. They are important for the protection of non-fat tissue mass (muscles). Limiting the energy intake or insufficient protein intake for weight loss cause a decrease in the non-fat tissue mass.

Carbohydrates: Carbohydrates are the primary energy source for the human body. Sufficient carbohydrate consumption prevents the use of protein for energy. Consumption of high fructose drinks such as corn syrup should not exceed 10% of the normal energy intake. Simple carbohydrate sources such as non-alcoholic drinks, breakfast cereals, cakes and similar products, sugary products and jams are popular foods among adolescents.

Fat: Total fat intake (especially saturated fat) in adolescence is above the recommended levels due to increased frequency of fast-food, snack, processed meat and full-fat cheese consumption.

Fiber: Fiber is important for the regulation of normal bowel functions. Sufficient amounts of fiber intake has an important effect on the prevention of chronic diseases such as cancer, heart diseases and type 2 diabetes. Low levels of fruit, vegetable and whole grain consumption in adolescence cause insufficient fiber intake.

Iron: Iron deficiency causes difficulty in concentration, deficiency in attention and sleepiness and usually results in low academic performance in school.

Calcium: The role of calcium in healthy bones and teeth is imperative during the adolescence period. Adequate calcium intake during the adolescence period has an important role in the prevention of health problems in mass bone structure such as osteopenia and osteoporosis. In order to avoid the loss of teeth, bone fractures and osteoporosis, total bone mineral density should reach the maximum levels.

During the adolescence period, consumption of non-alcoholic drinks should be at high levels. 14-15% of the daily energy intake comes from non-alcoholic drinks. Therefore, adolescents are advised to drink 1 to 1.5 glasses of milk and 2 glasses of non-alcoholic drinks per day. During the adolescence period, sufficient daily calcium intake may be reached by drinking milk instead of drinks with low nutritive values such as ready-made fruit juices and coke.

Vitamin C: Smoking lowers the amount of vitamin C in the body and causes increased levels of oxidative stress. People who smoke may need an additional 35 mg per day. Those who smoke during the adolesence period need to eat more fresh vegetables and fruit. Instead of ready-made fruit juices, it is important for adolescents to drink fresh fruit juice produced from grapes and oranges to support vitamin C intake.

http://www.emu.edu.tr/kafeteryalar/index.php?lang=en