Eating right at every age

There's never a time in your life when you don't need to eat well. That said, there are periods when your diet -- and certain elements of it -- demands particular vigilance. Follow this helpful eating guide so that you and each member of your family can be certain you're getting the right nutrients you need -- now.

Age 5

Iron
Iron deficiency, one of the most common nutritional deficiencies among North American children, can make your child feel tired, thereby affecting her learning skills. Iron is necessary for producing hemoglobin, the part of red blood cells that carries oxygen throughout the body. The best food sources are red meat, organ meat, enriched grains and cereals, dried fruits and green leafy vegetables. If your child isn't a meat eater, look for iron-fortified cereal and pasta, dried fruits such as raisins or apricots and green leafy vegetables such as broccoli or kale. Serving these foods with a vitamin C-rich food (e.g., cereal with orange juice) will aid absorption.

Fibre
An easy way to calculate the amount of fibre required by a child or adolescent is to add five to his age: the total is the number of grams of fibre he should eat in a day. For example, a five-year-old should eat 10 grams of fibre daily (achievable by eating five servings of grain products and five servings of fruits and vegetables). Concentrate on kids' traditional favourites - apples, carrots, oranges, bananas and breakfast cereals - and serve child-size portions (oe cup/50 millilitres of vegetables or cereal instead of 1/2 cup/125 millilitres). Snacks can be excellent sources of fibre; offer fresh fruit (half an apple or a sliced orange), vegetables (a small carrot with a yogurt dip) or peanut butter on a cracker.

Some typical fibre values:
• 1/2 cup (125 millilitres) baked beans: 10.3 grams
• 1/2 cup (125 millilitres) peas: 5.7 grams
• 1 pear: 5.1 grams
• 2/3 cup (150 millilitres) toasted whole wheat cereal: 3.1 grams
• 1 apple: 2.6 grams
• 1 orange: 2.4 grams
• 1/2 cup (125 millilitres) corn: 2.2 grams
• 2 tbsp (25 millilitres) peanut butter: 2 grams
• 1 slice whole wheat bread: 1.6 grams
• 2 tbsp (25 millilitres) raisins: 0.8 grams

Age 15

Calcium
One in four women will suffer from osteoporosis as an adult. One of the keys to prevention besides exercise is calcium, but waiting until your 30s or 40s to bone up is too late. Research shows that because bone mass is formed early in life, osteoporosis prevention must begin in childhood and adolescence. The newest guidelines from the Food and Nutrition Board, Institute of Medicine in Washington, D.C., recommend that teenagers get 1,300 milligrams per day (these recommendations mark the adoption of nutritional standards common to both Canada and the United States).

To get more calcium in your teen's diet, try offering yogurt smoothies, pizza with cheese, cheese submarine sandwiches, frozen yogurt, tacos or nachos with grated cheese, tall lattes or even chocolate milk. (It's a myth that we don't absorb the calcium in chocolate milk. Although it's true that the oxalic acid in the chocolate is known to bind with calcium, making it difficult to absorb, the percentage of calcium unavailable to the body is very small.) If your teen is off dairy products, you can suggest calcium-fortified soy beverages or calcium-fortified orange juice as a substitute.

Some typical calcium values:
• 1 cup (250 millilitres) milk: 300 milligrams
• 1/2 cup (125 millilitres) yogurt: 230 milligrams
• 1 ounce (30 grams) low-fat mozzarella cheese: 207 milligrams
• 1 ounce (30 grams) Cheddar cheese: 204 milligrams

Zinc
Essential for growth and reproduction, zinc is needed to make genetic materials. It helps boost the immune system and may even help fight colds. The best food sources are seafood, red meat, eggs, poultry, dried peas and beans, dairy products and nuts. Researchers are now exploring the link between vegetarian diets that contain inadequate amounts of zinc and eating disorders. By the age of 18, 80 per cent of young women have dieted, and up to 15 per cent of those have symptoms of eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia. In Ontario alone more than 100,000 men and women have clinical eating disorders. Anorexia and zinc deficiency have a number of symptoms in common, including weight loss, alterations in taste and appetite, and depression. Many young women with anorexia are vegetarians, a practice that could increase their risk for zinc deficiency. The theory is that a zinc deficiency may make it more difficult to treat an eating disorder. If your teen isn't eating meat, encourage him to bump up his intake of dairy and whole grains.