Topic 1 Introduction
- A healthy diet can lay the foundations of healthy development and prevent malnutrition.
- An unhealthy dietary pattern, along with limited physical activity account for a significant proportion of deaths and poor quality of life worldwide.
- Healthy eating in childhood and adolescence is important for proper growth and development and to prevent various health conditions
- A diet rich in fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts and wholegrains and poor of sugar and saturated fats can prolong life and prevent most non-communicable diseases, notably diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancer and obesity. It can even lead to higher educational attainments!
- Developing a healthy dietary pattern from an early age is crucial!
- Most of European countries have set specific guidelines tailor-made for their population taking into account apart from the evidence-based research on nutrition and health, the cultural particularities and local traditions.
- The Food and Agriculture Organization of United Nations (FAO) has selected the available dietary guidelines in Europe. These resources can be found here.
- The national dietary guidelines for infancy, childhood and adolescence of the countries were the Dr.PED-Chef project are summarized here:
- Türkiye Beslenme Rehberi TÜBER 2015” , “T.C. Sağlık Bakanlığı Yayın No: 1031 , Ankara 2016 available at: https://dosyasb.saglik.gov.tr/Eklenti/10915,tuber-turkiye-beslenme-rehberipdf.pdf
- Guías alimentarias para la población española (SENC, diciembre 2016); la nueva piramide de la alimentación saludable. Available at: https://www.nutricioncomunitaria.org/es/noticia-documento/43
- Nordic Nutrition Recommendations 2012 Integrating nutrition and physical activity. available at: http://norden.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:745807/FULLTEXT01.pdf
- LINEE GUIDA PER UNA SANA ALIMENTAZIONE November 2019, Rome https://www.crea.gov.it/documents/59764/0/LINEE-GUIDA+DEFINITIVO+%281%29.pdf/3c13ff3d-74dc-88d7-0985-4678aec18537?t=1579191262173
- EΘΝΙΚΟΣ ΔΙΑΤΡΟΦΙΚΟΣ ΟΔΗΓΟΣ: ΓΙΑ ΒΡΕΦΗ,ΠΑΙΔΙΑ ΚΑΙ ΕΦΗΒΟΥΣ, Greece, 2013 Available at: http://www.diatrofikoiodigoi.gr/files/html/kids_pro/files/assets/basic-html/index.html#1
- Although the principles of a healthy nutrition are similar across all ages, the nutritional needs differ according to the child developmental stage.