The impact of eating and nutrition

So for young people, there’s lots of physical developments going on. We see growth spurts and hormonal changes. And these different developments can affect how we eat and what we eat. And often they will affect our appetite and make us more hungry or less hungry. You might see young people needing a lot more food at meal times or needing more snacks. And that’s completely normal. That goes alongside those growth changes. For most young people, that will just settle back into a routine over time.

With depression, you might see young people needing, or going for kind of the junk foods a bit more, or those sugary foods that give those intense bursts of energy, especially if we’re tired or sleep deprived we might kind of crave those more sugary foods. If we’re feeling sad, we might try and comfort eat. We might want the foods that make us feel good. In terms of the advice we would give young people about their eating habits, the most important thing is getting a good balanced diet. Structure’s really good too. So getting up and having breakfast, that can set us up for the day and make it easier to get involved and work hard at school.

And the family can play a really important role as well. So the family can help to model the kind of foods that we should be eating. But also, the social aspect of eating can be really important, so sitting down at dinner together as a family.