Abstract
Young adulthood is a vulnerable period for weight gain and the health consequences of becoming obese during this life-stage of serious concern. Some unhealthy dietary habits are typical of young adults in many developed nations encountering the obesity epidemic. These include high sugar-sweetened beverage consumption, lower vegetable intake and greater consumption of foods prepared outside the home including fast foods. Each of these dietary behaviours may place young adults at increased risk for overweight and obesity. Evidence suggests many young adults with unhealthy nutrition behaviours are not considering nor preparing to make changes. To improve their nutrition and health as they progress through the lifecycle requires approaches specifically targeted to this age group. Strategies and programs should include both individual level and population approaches. The evidence base for prevention of weight gain and halting overweight and obesity in young adulthood is currently small with few studies of high quality. Studies modifying food environments in colleges and universities are also of limited quality, but sufficiently promising to conduct further research employing better, more sophisticated, study designs and additionally to include health outcome measures. More research into programs tailored to the needs of young adults is warranted with several studies already underway.
Highlights
For more than three decades, the developed world has experienced an obesity epidemic with little evidence to indicate prevalence is declining [1]
There is awareness that young adulthood is a period of rapid weight gain, and that the mean body mass index of the youngest generation as they enter adulthood becomes higher than the preceding generation [3,4], with some variation between countries
Preventing overweight young adults from becoming obese should be a priority in the management of the obesity epidemic
Summary
For more than three decades, the developed world has experienced an obesity epidemic with little evidence to indicate prevalence is declining [1]. Preventing overweight young adults from becoming obese should be a priority in the management of the obesity epidemic. The genesis of the obesity epidemic in the US and much of the Western world began more than 30 years ago At this time the food supply began to change with a greater availability of relatively inexpensive highly processed foods that could be high in saturated fat, sugars and starches with high energy density [9]. This review will discuss the health consequences of becoming overweight and obese at younger ages defined as 18 to 35 years; the individual dietary behaviours that define younger adults; their readiness to change behaviours and strategies that might be employed to enable better quality diets and prevention of weight gain. The appropriate media to disseminate nutrition promotion at the individual level of behavior change and at the public health and food environment policy level will be discussed
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