Breakfast is quite literally the meal meant to “break the fast” from all the hours you spend sleeping, and skipping it is known to cause a slew of bad chain reactions throughout the body. Even doctors say that skipping breakfast is not limited to urban slums but a dangerous phenomenon which is prevalent, not only amongst the adolescent girls but a across the strata of society like working and older adults, which takes a serious toll on their health. However, adolescent girls practice it more in order to shed extra kilos.
According to the study published in the Nutrition and Health Journal’s latest edition, 99 per cent girl’s skipped breakfast. Around 565 girls were examined in the age group of 16 to 18 years. The study revealed that almost 50 per cent of girls did not consume solid food for breakfast and 99 per cent of the participant consumed inadequate breakfast.
Dr Abhijit Lodha, Physician at Ruby hall clinic, said, “Due to inadequate nutritional intake, these girls have low immunity. Apart from the craze to acquire properly sculpted body, the early timings of schools and colleges is also one of the reason that they are eating fast food for the breakfast. Health problems like anaemia, Vitamin D deficiency are commonly seen in these girls.”
Neeta Somkumwar, nutrition counselor working at Aundh Civil Hospital in Pune, said, “The trend of crash diets and body slimming is seen across all the sections of society. Adolescent girls are found to be skipping the breakfast just because they want to shed their body weight. But, in reality, they should consume healthy breakfast to keep sustaining the energy for the rest of the day. Many girls are misguided and are unaware about the best nutrient rich dietary habits.”
The common problems caused by deficiency in nutrition in adolescent girls:
- Pregnancy related problems seen in the future which affects development of infant
- Susceptibility to catch infection is more seen in these girls
- Micro-nutrient deficiency and vitamin deficiency