Nutrition, Diet and Endocrinological Health in Female Children and Adolescents

During childhood and adolescence, the growth and pubertal development are recognized as crucial indicators of nutritional status and health. Balanced diet, adequate caloric intake, and nutritional status modulate positively and negatively the organ systems, including endocrine and metabolic systems, involved in the homeostasis and development of the body. A synergistic effect of nutrition, metabolism, and hormones on human health has been described; nutrition regards the nutrient acquisition process and metabolism is a nutrient transforming process into substrates, including hormones. The double malnutrition burden, such as undernutrition and overnutrition, may influence homeostatic interactions between nutrition, metabolism and hormones, particularly during pubertal stages when hormonal profile shows relevant changes. There are key aspects of homeostasis that are regulated differently in males and females and the prevalence of different metabolic and hormonal factors are otherwise expressed by gender. The major contributors of gender dimorphisms in glucose, lipid, and energy homeostasis are “activation” effects of estrogens and androgens acting on their receptors after the onset of puberty. Additionally, the incidence of several endocrinological disorders and metabolic derangement may vary with the onset of reproductive function, although the incidence before and during the onset of puberty, with female predominance. Gender-based differences in the children’s and adolescents’ health are not fully elucidated and rarely discussed. The scope of this research topic is to invite the clinicians and researchers to submit relevant original articles, reviews, editorials on the specific theme of “Nutrition, Diet and Endocrinological Health in Female Children and Adolescents”. To consider the study of gender differences is useful to develop a gender-specific medicine offering an interesting perspective to further develop personalized and/or precision medicine.

In the research topic, focusing on the female children and adolescents and/or sex-specific differences, the following subtopics will be considered:

• nutritional status and metabolic and endocrinological health;

• nutritional preventive strategy to protect metabolic and endocrinological children’s health;

• nutritional disorders and related complications;

• hormones, nutrients and endocrinological homeostasis;

• endocrinological and metabolic disorders in obesity, undernutrition (wasting, stunting, underweight, and mineral/vitamin-related malnutrition) anorexia, and diet-related noncommunicable diseases.