Eating Behaviours, Nutrition and Health in Adolescence: A Narrative Review

Among the developmental stages of human life, adolescence is a nutritionally important period where the growth spurt occurs. Proper nutrition paves the way to adequate growth and good health during this period. At the same time, this is a period where a person starts to become independent and food choices and dietary habits begin to change according to environmental influences. Eating behaviours of adolescents exert a major impact on the nutritional health of adolescents. The eating behaviours in adolescents may vary from individual to individual and may manifest in some as undereating, overeating or disordered patterns. Each of these abnormal patterns is harmful and ends up in negative outcomes; overeating leads to overweight, obesity and non-communicable diseases and undereating causing undernutrition and its related consequences. Similarly, disordered eating patterns can lead to nutritional deficiencies and may even progress to eating disorders as well. Therefore, understanding the eating behaviours of adolescents, their associated factors and their consequences is important to determine the interventions to improve the nutritional health of adolescents. In this review, the importance of eating behaviours in adolescence, common eating behaviours of adolescents, the consequences of unhealthy eating behaviours of adolescents and the strategies that can be taken to promote healthy eating behaviours have been discussed. The present review also highlights the knowledge gaps in existing literature concerning eating behaviours among adolescents. Future research is recommended to explore the modern eating behaviours of adolescents, their associations and effective interventions to promote healthy eating behaviours among them.