How your age affects your appetite.?

We all need food every day, but our relationship that changes with it over the years can have a major impact on our health.
Do you eat to live or live to eat? We have a complicated relationship with food, affected by cost, availability and even peer pressure. But something we all share is the appetite - our desire to eat.

While hunger - the way our body makes us want food when it takes food - is part of the appetite, it is not the only factor. After all, we often eat when we are not hungry, or maybe skip meals even when there is hunger. Recent research has highlighted that the number of food cues - smell, sound, advertising - in our environment is one of the main causes of excessive consumption.

Our appetite is also not fixed, it changes our entire age as we age. As Shakespeare puts it, there are seven ages of appetite, and a better understanding of these phases can help us develop new ways to overcome the lack of food and excessive consumption, along with health effects, such as obesity, that follow.

First decade, 0-10

In childhood, the body experiences rapid growth and dietary behaviors that are built early in life can continue into adulthood, leading a fat child to become an overweight adult.

Fearing or fear of certain foods can also contribute to the mealtime struggle for children's parents, but a repetitive taste and learning strategy in a positive environment can help children learn about unfamiliar but important foods, such as vegetables.

Fussiness over certain foods can cause later eating problems.

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Children should also experience control, especially in relation to portion size. Being forced to "clean the plate" by parents can cause children to lose their ability to follow their own tastes and signs of hunger, promoting overeating in later years. There is growing appeal for the government to protect children from targeted junk food ads - not only on television but in apps, social media and video blogs - as food advertisements increase food consumption, which can contribute to children being overweight .

The second decade, 10-20

In adolescence, appetite-driven growth and physique, signaling the onset of puberty. How a teenager approaches food during this critical period will shape their lifestyle choices in the coming years.

This means that teenage diet decisions are intrinsically linked to the health of future generations who will later become their parents. Unfortunately, without guidance, adolescents can adopt feeding behaviors and food preferences associated with unhealthy consequences.

Young women are generally more likely to suffer from nutritional deficiencies than young men because of their reproductive biology. Pregnant teenage girls are also at greater risk because their bodies support their own growth in competition with growing fetuses.

The third decade, 20-30

As young adults, lifestyle changes such as going to college, marrying or living with a partner, and parents can increase weight.

Once accumulated, body fat is often difficult to lose. The body sends a strong appetite signal to eat when we consume less than our energy needs, but the signal to prevent overeating is weaker, which can cause an excessive consumption cycle. There are many physiological and psychological factors that make eating more difficult to maintain over time.

The stress we experience in our 20s and 30s can cause us to gain weight.

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A new field of research is to develop a sense of satiety, a sense of well-fed. It helps when trying to lose weight, because feeling hungry is one of the main obstacles to eating less than what the body says you need.

Different foods send different signals to the brain. It's easy to eat an ice cream tub, for example, because fat does not trigger a signal in the brain to stop eating. On the other hand, foods high in protein, water or fiber content make us feel full longer. Working with the food industry provides an opportunity to shape the future of food and snacks in a profitable way.

The fourth decade, 30-40

The adult work life brings other challenges beyond the rumbling stomach, but also the effects of stress, which have been shown to encourage appetite changes and eating habits in 80% of the population, are also divided between those with canyons and those who lose appetite.

These different coping strategies are interesting: the phenomenon of "food addiction" - an irresistible urge to consume specific, often high-calorie foods - is not well understood. Many researchers even question his whereabouts.

Other personality traits, such as perfectionism and sincerity, may also play a role in mediating stress and eating behavior.

Structuring the work environment to reduce a problematic diet such as snacking or vending machines is a challenge. Employers should strive to subsidize and promote healthy eating for a productive and healthy workforce, along with ways of managing stress and stressful situations.

The fifth decade, 40-50

The word diet comes from the Greek word diaita which means "way of life, way of life", but we are creatures of habit, often do not want to change our preference even when we know it is good for us. We want to eat what we want without changing our lifestyle, and still have a healthy body and mind.

In middle age, stress can lead us to become addicted to high-calorie foods.

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There is ample evidence to suggest that diet is a major factor contributing to health problems. The World Health Organization highlights smoking, unhealthy diet, physical activity and drinking problems as a major lifestyle impact on health and death.

It is between the ages of 40-50 that adults should change their behavior as dictated by their health, but symptoms of the disease are often invisible - such as high blood pressure or cholesterol - and many fail to act.

Sixth decade, 50-60

After the age of 50, we begin to suffer from a gradual loss of muscle mass, between 0.5-1% per year. This is called sarcopenia, and reduces physical activity, consumes too little protein, and menopause in women will accelerate the decrease in muscle mass.

A healthy, varied diet, and physical activity are important to reduce the effects of aging, and the aging population's need for tasty, cost-effective, and high-protein foods is not met.

Protein-rich snacks may represent the ideal opportunity to increase total protein intake in older adults, but there are currently several products designed to meet older adult requirements and preferences. (Read more about how much protein we need)

The seventh decade, 60-70, and so on

The main challenge today in the face of increased life expectancy is to maintain the quality of life, or we will be a very old society and a weak or disabled person.

In the future, adequate nutrition is even more important to maintain health.

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Sufficient nutrition is important, as old age brings poor appetite and lack of hunger, leading to unintentional weight loss and greater brittleness. Decreased appetite can also be caused by disease, such as the effects of Alzheimer's disease.

Food is a social experience, but losing a spouse or family and eating alone affects the pleasure taken from eating. Other influences of old age, such as swallowing problems, dental problems, reducing taste and smell also interfere with the desire to eat and reward us from doing so.

We must remember that throughout our lives our food is not just fuel, but social and cultural experience to enjoy. We are all experts in food - we eat it every day.

So we should try to treat every opportunity to eat as an opportunity to enjoy our food and to enjoy the positive effects of eating the right foods can affect our health.

Alex Johnstone is Personal Chair at Nutrition at The Rowett Institute, University of Aberdeen. This article originally appeared in The Conversation, and was republished with a Creative Commons license.