Enhancing the nutrition of America's youth

Today, we know more about what foods children should eat for optimal growth and development, as well as future health, than ever before. Yet, many of our nation's youth are not meeting their nutritional needs and are followin g a sedentary lifestyle. Overweight among American children has increased d ramatically during the past decade. Also, children's low calcium intake can compromise their bone health and increase their future risk of osteoporosi s. Health professionals, parents, educators and others responsible for chil dren can play a key role in enhancing the nutrition of America's youth. How ever, they first need to be aware of the important issues regarding childre n's nutrition and how best to positively impact children's nutrition. A rec ent briefing by experts in child nutrition and a roundtable discussion was held in Washington, DC, to address these topics. This review summarizes the information presented. Focusing on dietary restrictions, such as a low fat diet, was identified as an obstacle to positively impacting children's nut rition. To improve children's dietary intake and their ability to learn in school, efforts are being made to increase the availability of and particip ation in the School Breakfast Program. Parents and other child care provide rs can serve as role models and positively influence what foods children li ke and will actually eat. Children are not little adults and, as such, diet ary guidelines based on adult data should not be extrapolated to children. Support for the development of separate dietary guidelines for children is growing. These guidelines should be based on sound scientific evidence of e fficacy and safety. Enhancing the nutrition of America's youth is emerging as a priority, both locally (i.e., community school feeding programs) and n ationally (i.e., dietary guidelines).