Kids never stop growing
Good nutrition plays a critical role in everyone's health, and it's especially important for children. Kids never stop growing, from birth to adolescence. Pound for pound, a five year old child needs more thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, vitamins A and C, and vitamins B6 and B12 than a 25 year old man.
Growth involves much more than just the development of children's bodies. It is an 
incredibly intricate balance of varying anatomical growth rates, physiological changes, and shifting hormone status. While growth in childhood is slower than in infancy or adolescence, energy output is high, with hard ply periods that include plenty of running, jumping, and testing of new physical skills.
In addition, to fuel for growth and normal activity levels a child's diet must provide for the accumulation of stores of nutrients in preparation for the accelerated growth spurts of teen years.
Unfortunately, one clinical study after another shows that our children do not receive the nutrition they need from their diets. In addition to problems caused by high intake of fat, particularly saturated fats, many children are simply not getting enough of the essential nutrients. Less than 25 percent of young people eat the recommended five servings or more of fruits and vegetables each day. And nearly one quarter of all vegetables consumed by children and adolescents are French fries. Adequate amounts of key nutrients such as zinc, vitamin B9, magnesium, and calcium are missing from the diets of more than 50 percent of children from two to 10 years old.
Child hood nutrition is not only important for a child's developing years. Maintaining optimal health is a lifelong challenge. More and more medical research is showing that it is the poor diet and bad habits that are established in childhood that develop into degenerative diseases of middle and old age. With this in mind, it is important to focus today on maintaining a child's health through proper eating patterns.
Kids need to take a full array of antioxidants, vitamins and minerals in amounts especially designed for active growing children. These should include advanced amounts of vitamins E and C, two of the most powerful antioxidants needed by the human body. Vitamin E is one of the most important antioxidants because it helps to maintain strong cell membranes. In addition to its antioxidant role, vitamin C is essential for the manufacture of collagen, the main protein substance in the body. Other antioxidants can include phytonutrient blends of blackberry, cranberry, raspberry and wild blueberry.
It is also becoming apparent that children require good levels of Essential Fatty Acids - see Essential Fatty Acids / Children research report.
Next - Cardiovascular health
