American Medical Association Family Medical Guide - American Medical Association [38]
As your child enters school, he or she will still need lots of calories to fuel growth. However, the number of children in America who are overweight or obese is skyrocketing. Being overweight as a child can lead to health problems such as heart disease and diabetes—and Americans are developing these diseases at younger and younger ages. Limit your child’s intake of high-calorie, high-fat snacks, and encourage him or her to be physically active. In general, being physically active is a better solution for an overweight child than a diet that drastically cuts calories because of the risk of developing an eating disorder (see page 725) or of getting insufficient amounts of essential nutrients.
The accelerated body changes that occur during adolescence are sustained by good nutrition. During the rapid growth spurt between ages 15 and 19, athletic teenage boys can require 2,500 to 4,000 calories each day. By contrast, girls usually stop growing at 15 and can easily become overweight if they consume more than 2,000 calories a day. Many teenagers get most of their calories from fast food and junk food. Do what you can to influence your teenager’s food choices. Make nutritious food available at home. Offer healthy snacks, such as cut-up vegetables, fresh fruit, whole-grain cereals—or even last night’s leftovers. Resist the temptation to buy high-fat, high-calorie, sugar-laden snacks. Remind your teenager to have breakfast every day.
Once a person reaches about 25 years of age, nutritional needs stabilize and stay about the same until middle age and older. Eating a diet that is low in saturated fat and trans fats and high in fiber-rich whole grains, vegetables, fruits, and legumes remains the most sensible path. The average man needs about 2,500 calories each day; the average woman needs about 2,200 daily calories. Consume fewer calories if you are sedentary and more if you are very active.
Avoid weight gain as you age. Excess weight or a body mass index (BMI; see page 11) above the recommended range is always unhealthy and can increase your risk for the most common chronic health problems, including heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and some types of cancer. Although metabolism (the chemical processes that take place in the body) slows down and calorie needs drop with age, your body still needs the same amount of vitamins and minerals. Stay as active as possible; exercise and physical activity can help you maintain muscle strength, boost your metabolism, and fight depression.
The ability to eat nutritiously can be compromised by age-related physical problems resulting from chronic conditions such as arthritis, deteriorating eyesight, and gum disease, or from taking some medications (which can affect your appetite). To make sure you continue to get all the nutrients you need as you age, take advantage of senior citizen programs in your community. Talk to your doctor or to a social worker at your local hospital to find out about available programs. Check with your local senior center to see if it offers inexpensive meals. Home-delivered meals, church-sponsored meal programs, and government-sponsored programs such as food stamps are other options to explore.
If You Are an Athlete
If you are very athletic, your calorie requirements are higher than those for people who are less active. If you train for endurance events such as a marathon or a triathlon, you may need to double your calorie intake each day. Some endurance athletes can develop anemia (see page 610) because vigorous exercise reduces the concentration of iron in the blood. Eating a balanced diet containing iron-rich foods such as fortified cereals and breads, lean beef, pork, the dark meat of poultry, and dried beans is usually enough to prevent sports anemia. Athletes may need slightly more protein than other people, about 1 gram (rather than 0.8 gram) per kilogram (2.2 pounds) of body weight. Protein supplements are unnecessary for athletes because most Americans already consume more