What you eat at age six (6) affects your health at age sixty (60). It is easy to see how a child’s diet equates to his present health and growth. The implications of his food intake on his future health and life expectancy is less apparent, yet some problems of chronic ill health in adult life has links to food intake in early childhood.
CARDIOVASCULAR HEALTH
Atherosclerosis starts in childhood. It runs in families, as some are more predisposed. If close family members, uncles and grandparents have or had high blood pressure, high cholesterol or heart problems before the age of sixty the child needs to watch out.
Fr instance it is recommended that all adults limit the fat content of their daily diet to less than 30 percent of total calories. Children under the age of two years should not have a restricted fat intake but after this age the same rule should apply. Reduced fat milk fortified with vitamin A & D can be used after the age of two.
There is a theory that kids who are fat or chubby in their childhood will be fat in adulthood as quantity of fat cells are determined by genetics spurned by diet during childhood. Once a certain amount of fat cells (not the size of them) are present in childhood, it is difficult to be slim later.
DIABETES
In most countries the incidence of diabetes is about ten (10%) percent an don the rise. Type 2 or mature-onset diabetes which is an adult type diabetes is now a problem even with teenage kids. This is directly due to poor dietary habits of eating too much refined carbohydrates.
OBESITY
Cardiovascular disease and diabetes are more common in overweight people. Over seventy (70%) percent of children who are overweight at ten to thirteen years will become overweight adults with its associated risks. As mentioned earlier this is because the number of fat cells increases in childhood and remains fixed during adult life.
Obesity is now an epidemic among children today. Carbonated and high fructose drinks have been a contributive factor. Sedentary lifestyle with high intakes of fat and refined carbohydrates and salt, with low fiber, protein and vitamin content are apparent today.
OSTEOPOROSIS
It is critical to amass a high bone density before one reach adulthood. It is inevitable that after the age of fifty (50), the bone becomes fragile and brittle with increasing age. Bone stores are laid down during childhood and adolescence to produce peak bone mass in early adult life. This will affect the density of bone present in later life and the severity of osteoporosis.
Bone growth in childhood needs a good supply of calcium. Children under the age of three (3) need about 500mg daily and those between four (4) and eight (8) need 800mg daily together with vitamin D and magnesium. This can be obtained from milk, fish and soy products.
ANOREXIA & BULIMIA
There have been very few studies conducted about the effects of childhood picky eating behaviors on the development of eating disorders later in life. One study that does address this issue was performed by Margaret Marchi, Ph.D and Patricia Cohen, Ph.D. In this study, problematic eating behaviors were traced in a large sample of children over a period of ten years. Children and their parents were questioned about the occurrence of unpleasant meals, struggles over eating, and picky eating during their daily routines, as well as about the amount of food eaten, speed of eating, and interest in food eaten. Picky eating was found to be very common among young children, regardless of sex differences. The study found that children who had troublesome patterns of eating when young were more likely to have problems with food later in life. Picky eaters showed an increase in the frequency and severity of bulimic and anorexic symptoms upon adolescence and adulthood.
Kotler et al. (2001) showed many of these same results. This study examined the extent to which symptoms of eating disorders remained stable over time, as well as the effect early childhood eating problems have on the development of eating disorders. This study showed a dramatic increase in the risk of developing an eating disorder when an individual had experienced eating problems earlier in life.
Another study, dated 1986, does not show a strong relationship between disturbed childhood eating patterns and bulimia later in life. In this study, twenty bulimic women and their parents were questioned retrospectively about childhood eating problems. Only two of the families reported fussy eating during childhood. Data from this study does not suggest a relationship between childhood feeding problems as a causal factor in the development of bulimia later in life.
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