Children's and adolescents' characteristics and interactions with the food system

In this paper, we conducted a narrative review to describe age-specific characteristics that inform how children and adolescents interact with their food systems and how that relationship influences their diets. Children of all ages are active agents in determining the foods they eat. Numerous intrapersonal, interpersonal, and environmental characteristics influence their diets, and these shift over time. Some of these characteristics make children and adolescents susceptible to features across the food system that present challenges to the attainment of healthy diets during childhood and adolescence, and that lead to suboptimal nutrition outcomes. Special attention is needed to protect children's and adolescents' abilities to secure diets that are desirable, nutritious, safe, affordable, and sustainable.