At approximately age one, children enter the latent period of growth. During this period, until the onset of puberty, growth and development are more gradual than during the first year. Physical growth steadies, and the body begins to look more proportioned as it prepares for an "upright" lifestyle. The immediate stages following infancy are toddlerhood (ages one through three) and the preschool years (ages ...

Nutrition during the preconception period, as well as throughout a pregnancy, has a major impact on pregnancy outcome. Among prepregnancy considerations, the prepregnancy Body Mass Index (BMI), folic acid status, and socioeconomic status are the most important. Prepregnancy BMI is an important factor in predicting pregnancy outcome, since both low prepregnancy and high prepregnancy BMI are associated with a ...

Food is very much a part of popular culture, and the beliefs, practices, and trends in a culture affect its eating practices. Popular culture includes the ideas and objects generated by a society, including commercial, political, media, and other systems, as well as the impact of these ideas and objects on society. Current Trends There has been an increasing trend in the United States toward consumerism, a ...

The Pacific Ocean—the world's largest ocean—extends about 20,000 kilometers from Singapore to Panama. There are 789 habitable islands within the "Pacific Islands," a geographic area in the western Pacific comprising Polynesia, Melanesia, and Micronesia. Polynesia includes 287 islands and is triangular, with Hawaii, New Zealand, and Easter Island at the apexes. Other major Polynesian islands include American ...

The Pacific Islands contain 789 habitable islands and are divided into the three geographic areas: Polynesia, Melanesia, and Micronesia. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, there are over a million Pacific Islanders in the United States, most of whom live in California, Hawaii, Washington, Utah, and Texas. Pacific Islander ethnicities in the United States include Carolinian, Fijian, Guamanian, Hawaiian, Kosr ...

Osteopenia is defined as the stage of low bone density that precedes osteoporosis. At this stage, bone density is below average but not as low as occurs with osteoporosis. The World Health Organization formed a committee in 1994 to define osteoporosis, and four categories were defined: normal, osteopenia, osteoporosis, and established osteoporosis. All of these categories are measured by bone density and th ...

Osteomalacia is a disease in which insufficient mineralization leads to a softening of the bones. Usually, this is caused by a deficiency of vitamin D, which reduces bone formation by altering calcium and phosphorus metabolism. Osteomalacia can occur because of reduced exposure to sunlight (which, after touching the skin, causes the body to make vitamin D), insufficient intake of vitamin D–enriched foods (l ...

In response to a need to standardize the use of such terms as organic and natural, the U.S. Congress passed the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990, which established the U.S. National Organic Standards Board (NOSB). In 1995, the NOSB defined organic agriculture as "an ecological  production management system that promotes and enhances biodiversity, biological cycles and soil biological activity. It is bas ...

Oral rehydration therapy (ORT) involves the replacement of fluids and electrolytes lost during an episode of diarrheal illness. Diarrheal illnesses are pervasive worldwide, and they have a particularly large impact in the developing world. Children under the age of five are the major victims and account for over 3 million deaths a year due to dehydration associated with diarrheal illness. The World Health O ...

Oral tissues, such as the gingiva (gums), teeth, and muscles of mastication (chewing muscles), are living tissues, and they have the same nutritional requirements as any other living tissue in the body. When adequate, nutritious food is not available, oral health may be compromised by nutrient-deficiency diseases, such as scurvy. In contrast, when food is freely available, as in many industrialized societie ...