MHD508 Module 5 Case: Dietary Choices Among the Youths

Dietary Choices among the Youths
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Introduction
Young adulthood is a crucial stage in life when certain habits and behaviors are formed, most of which are then carried into adult. One of the most common behaviors that young adults develop is poor dietary patterns. This is an age that has been found have very poor eating habits compared to all the other ages and stages in life. The elemental health risk behaviors are associated with low intake of fruits and vegetables and a high intake of fast foods and sweetened drinks. In the recent years, there has been a spike in the rate at which the young generation is developing life style diseases, such as diabetes, hypertension and obesity (Sleddens et al., 2015). This would explain the death rates associated with poor lifestyle choices. Relative to the health risks associated with poor health habits, they are also affected by the element of peer influence. This is a common aspect especially among the children, adolescents and the young adults. While there is not much research interventions on this aspect, understanding the trend is crucial to designing better interventions. When this is coupled with lack of exercise, most of the people in this age group tend to develop health problems (Sleddens et al., 2015). The combination of a sedentary life on the couch, behind the television and working on the computer for many hours on end, as well as the poor dietary options associated with fast foods and sweetened drinks is a health hazard.
Interventions and Their Impacts
There is a close relationship between the habits that people have in their young adulthood and adolescent stages that can be traced back to the younger years. Much of the unhealthy habits that most of the teenagers have, are not picked from their peers as such, but are rather elemental to how the children were brought up. This is an aspect that can also be established in quite number of children in America that are currently struggling with weight issues even before their teenage. In the first years of a person’s life, they are helped by their guardians to develop socially, physically and emotionally. It is during this time that they transition through the various foods that they eat for their health and growth needs (Olson, 2014). Parents as such, play a very crucial role in the kind of habits that their children adopt as they grow up. Parent above all are the main determinants of the trend that their children adopt. They act as models for their children on various level and healthy dietary habits is one of the areas that greatly influenced. By observing what parents are eating, children pick up on the habits. This is also associated with what parents encourage their children to eat and kind of restraint and education that children get from their parents about unhealthy food choices (Olson, 2014). Quite a number of researchers and news reports point fingers at the parents holding them accountable for the obesity condition in their children. There were debates for parents to be jailed in the UK and loose custody i...