CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.0 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
        Nutrition education is any combination of educational strategies, accompanied by environmental supports, designed to facilitate voluntary adoption of food choices and other food- and nutrition- related behaviour conducive to health and well-being.
        Nutrition education is delivered through multiple venues and involves activities of the individual, community, and policy levels (Jones and Bartletti, 2007).
        This definition has been adopted by the society for nutrition education and behaviour and was authored by Dr. Isobel Contento, a leading authority in nutrition education. The work of nutrition educators takes place in colleges, universities and schools, government agencies, cooperative extension, communications and public relations firms, the food industry, voluntary and service organizations and with other reliable places of nutrition and health education information.
        The American Dietetic Association (ADA) published a position paper regarding the nutritional needs of teenagers. This paper stated that the health of adolescents is dependent on normal dietary intakes and that the provision of foods that contain adequate energy and nutrients was essential for physical, social and cognitive growth and development.
        Adequate nutrient intake during adolescence is very important for many reasons. Adolescence is a particularly unique period of life because it is a time of intense physical, psychological and cognitive development.
        Adolescence is a transition phase to adulthood. The age of adolescence encapsulates a window of time when bodies are metamorphosing and evolving into that of an adult. It is a time when the adolescent tries to establish his own identify yet desperately seeks to be socially accepted by his peers (Lulinski, 2001). During adolescence hormonal changes accelerate growth in height. Growth is faster than at any other time in the individual’s life except the first year (Brasel, 1982). Increased nutritional needs at this juncture relate to the fact that adolescents gain up to 50% of their adult weight, more than 20% of their adult height and 50% of their adult skeletal mass during this period (Brasel, 1982). The adolescent therefore face series of serious nutritional challenges which would impact on this rapid growth spurt as well as their health as adults. However, the adolescent remain a largely neglected, difficult to-measure, hard-to-reach population. Consequently, the needs, particularly those of adolescent girls are often ignored (Kurz and Johnson-Welch, 1994).
        At this developmental stages, protein requirements maximal. Increased physical activity, combined with poor eating habit and other considerations, for example, menstruation, oral contraceptive use and pregnancy contribute to accentuating the potential risk for adolescents of poor nutrition.