A New Healthy Lifestyle Guide

Program Overview:

Children and adolescents have different energy, nutrition and physical activity needs than adults. This was the starting point of the research conducted by a multidisciplinary team of Spanish experts that led to the development of a Healthy Lifestyle Pyramid designed especially for children and adolescents 6 to 18 years of age, which was published in Nutrición Hospitalaria (an official organ of FESNAD, the Spanish Federation of Societies for Nutrition, Diet and Dietetics). The pyramid was developed as a single tool for teaching children the many aspects of leading a healthy life , including nutrition and hydration, physical activity, hygiene ,and the importance of avoiding improper habits like consumption of any kind of alcohol or tobacco, in order to ward off future health problems from early ages and help enhance quality of life.

The three-dimensional Pyramid has four faces and was based on the latest scientific knowledge on the amount of nutrients that young children’s meal portions should contain, and how these should increase with age in different proportions. The pyramid, which is intended as an educational tool, was developed on the basis of didactic concepts and easily understandable drawings, which children and adolescents can clearly relate to. The base of the pyramid was conceived as a didactic support, and includes a set of recommendations for three age bands: 6- 9, 10-13 and 14-18 years, based on creating, consolidating and maintaining lifelong healthy habits.

The project was developed by a multidisciplinary team of experts in nutrition, exercise physiology, physical activity and public health from the Faculty of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences -INEF- at the Polytechnic University of Madrid and from the Faculty of Medicine at Granada University.

Placing emphasis on proper hydration is indispensable, the experts say.

Each face of the pyramid has a different purpose. Face One contains aspects such as daily food intake, the importance of having five meals a day, sitting relaxed at the table, and the recommendation to drink liquids. In this respect, hydration is one of the key aspects of the research, as “up until now, not a lot of data have been published in specialized texts about young people's water and liquid intake”. “We are 65% water, and children are more likely to become dehydrated, particularly in a hot climate like ours,” according to Dr. Marcela González-Gross, Senior Lecturer at the Polytechnic University of Madrid and coordinator of the project.

Face Two stresses the need for children to take regular physical exercise, and introduces the idea that all children's daily activities - including those that are more sedentary, such as a board game- are necessary and beneficial, as long as we monitor the time spent on each of them properly. Face Three is an adaptation of the traditional pyramid, specially adapted to children's energy, nutrient and hydration needs. Face 4 focuses on acquiring a series of daily habits that are beneficial for their future life, such as brushing their teeth or avoiding the consumption of tobacco or any kind of alcohol.

The base of the pyramid contains tips divided into age groups on how to keep a suitable nutrition and physical activity balance, so that this process enables them to develop and maintain a healthy lifestyle in adulthood, the ultimate aim of the research. (Program Length: 1 hour)

REFERENCE:
"The 'healthy lifestyle guide pyramid' for children and adolescents." González-Gross M, Gómez-Lorente JJ, Vatueña J, Ortiz JC, and Melendez A. Nutr Hosp,2008; 23: 161-170.   SOURCE: www.conocecocacola.es