Abstract
Nutrition has an essential impact on life culture. As a result, the most effective way for societies to be healthy and productive is to provide healthy nutrition practices for children at home and in educational settings. One of the topics stressed in the combat against COVID-19 is the use of healthy foods and beverages that improve the immune system in all age groups, including youngsters, because nutrition helps to improve their immune systems, which are not as strong as the adults. Due to restrictions placed on the spread of the pandemic, as well as the inability of school-aged children to benefit from nutrition programs due to the closure of educational institutions, children's food choices have weakened. Children's nutrition should be made healthy not just in educational surroundings but also in the communities where they reside, for example through street children's soup kitchens, to repair the unhealthy pandemic process. However, one of the most difficult subjects for dietitians is improving the diversity of food consumption among the new generation.
Top1.1 Introduction
This review attempted to present a framework of global solution proposals by intending to reveal the pressures on child nutrition caused by the closure of learning environments during the pandemic. During the Covid-19 process, general child nutrition in high- and low-income groups in various regions of the world, as well as nutrition facts in learning environments where children spend most time after home, were reviewed for this purpose. That after, although it is still ongoing, suggestions on the economic and political basis following Covid-19 were sought to be put forward by reviewing scientific sources undertaken in developed, developing and underdeveloped countries with various ethnicities.
As children's and teenagers' diets and lifestyles have such an impact on their development, their nutrition and physical activity should be assessed as part of a plan (Weichselbaum & Buttriss, 2014). The fact that hunger is designated as Action No. 2 of the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals demonstrates the worldwide gravity of the problem (Colglazier, 2015). Education is no longer bound to a closed regular classroom; it now takes place in a variety of environments, from online courses to playgrounds. As a result, educational environments provide children the options for both theoretical and practical nutrition activities. The family and educational environment, in which children, who are the future's building blocks, spend the first years of their lives, are not only educational and training environments, but also surroundings in which life's culture is molded. Nutrition is one of the few phenomena that has a major role in the shaping of life's culture. As a result, the most effective strategies for healthy and productive societies are establishing proper physical and social infrastructures for children and young people in the home and classroom, as well as proper dietary habits. In the process of flavor development in people's diet, culture, environment, economy, social structure, and personal preferences all play a role. Several research studies have been conducted on the formation of new generation's eating habits, as well as the subsequent development processes of individuals. The main reasons for obesity and chronic diseases are inappropriate food choices in childhood (Perera et al., 2015). It is stressed that providing healthy food choices for students has a positive effect on learning efficiency (Rusch, 2013; Frisvold, 2015) and the right food choices can reduce and eliminate the risk of obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, etc., even without medication, which may occur at very young age (Kaikkonen et al., 2013). It is necessary to take macronutrients such as carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, as well as micronutrients such as vitamins and minerals, that the body requires according to age and gender, in order to ensure the healthy growth and development of children, who are the future of societies (Peni et al., 2020). Personal and environmental variables influence the nutritional habits of school-aged children. Although inheritance has a significant impact on a child's appetite, the environment (such as family and school) plays a critical part in shaping children's eating habits (Scaglioni et al, 2011).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Junk Food: Unhealthy foods with high fat, sugar, high energy content such as chocolate and chips.
Micronutrients: These are vitamins and minerals found in foods that do not provide energy but aid in the production of it.
Fast Food: Fast prepared foods with high energy, saturated fat, sugar, and sodium content.
Macronutrients: Carbohydrates, fats, and proteins that play a role in the formation of energy in foods are referred to as macronutrients.
Healthy Food: Healthy foods include vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, and seafood, all of which contain energy as well as the micro and macronutrients required for proper growth and development.
Pandemic: It is the transboundary spread of a disease or infectious agent in numerous parts of the world.
Malnutrition: A nutritional condition that causes children to obtain insufficient energy and nutrients for their age and gender, resulting in excessive or insufficient energy intake.
Child Obesity: Obesity in children refers to being overweight for their height or having body mass index percentile values that are higher than the norm for their age and gender.
Child Nutrition: Providing an adequate and balanced intake of food categories throughout the day to fulfill the energy and nutritional demands of children based on their age and gender to support healthy growth and development.
School Nutrition Programs: Programs that are implemented in schools to address some of the macro and micronutrient requirements of students.