Healthy eating: Why teenagers eat and adults cry – DW – 08/22/2024

Susanne Klaus, lead researcher at the German Institute of Human Nutrition, said: “Our bodies are telling us more about what to eat and when to eat, and maybe we should listen.

That makes sense. But the way our body demands energy from us is not the same throughout our lives.

From being spoon-fed by our parents as babies to sneaking sugary candies as children, to eating everything in sight as teenagers and smashing the dishes small and simple as we grow, our appetite changes as the years go by. to. Understanding why can help ensure good health in our later years.

Hunger hormones and how they work

At its core, eating food works: Without the energy we get from it, we could not live.

Carbohydrates in our food are converted into energy while fats and amino acids help create important proteins and other components that help the body function.

To ensure that these processes work like a clock, the body has special processes to ensure a constant supply of energy.

“These [are self-regulating] Klaus said: “It’s mainly signals from the stomach and intestines, but also from hormones like leptin, which is produced by adipose tissue. [or body fat] and which gives signals to the greater hypothalamus [a control center in the brain]. This is an autonomous system, like breathing.”

These chemicals that force us to seek (or stop seeking) food are sometimes called hunger hormones. Besides leptin, ghrelin is probably the most well-known hunger hormone.

Ghrelin is released into the bloodstream in the stomach and tells the brain to eat. When you are full, the release of ghrelin is delayed, giving a feeling of fullness.

Other hormones regulate feelings of fullness and emptiness, too. These include insulin and other pancreatic hormones that suppress hunger, such as GLP-1, which the diabetes drug Ozempic mimics.

Digestive machinery

When these hormones prompt you to stick food in your mouth, the body uses digestive systems to digest your food.

Digestion begins in your mouth, where you grind your food into smaller, mushier forms that you can swallow. This process continues as this liquid slurry is forced down the esophagus into your stomach – a process known as peristalsis.

Next to this process is chemical digestion. This begins in the mouth where the amylase enzymes in the saliva begin to break down the starch in the food. Some of these digestive enzymes are in the stomach to complete the job so that water and nutrients can be absorbed from the intestines into the bloodstream.

How your appetite changes as you age

This influence on food is especially strong when you reach your teenage years. The body craves energy to fuel its most important developmental stage – puberty – to propel it into physical and sexual growth.

But lifelong nutrition can be a challenge. In elderly people, there is a risk that the body does not work well in stimulating the consumption of the necessary food. Other studies have shown changes in the production of hunger hormones in later life.

“As people age, on average, [they] losing muscle and muscle is a room that uses a lot of energy,” said Klaus.

The main reason for reducing muscle mass is the failure to eat enough protein.

“Protein intake in later life is lower than what is recommended and even the recommendations, according to various scientific groups, should actually be higher for protein intake in later life- rao, because it is very important to maintain muscle mass,” said Daniel Crabtree, a post-graduate nutrition researcher at the University of Aberdeen.

Despite the advice, Crabtree says older people’s protein intake is often lower than recommended, and that can include obesity and other signs of aging — from complications of teeth to change the taste or smell.

Edited by: Zulfikar Abbany