Some dietary advice for teenagers – and their parents!
UK and USA (US Department of Agriculture) studies have found the diets of most children do not meet daily dietary recommendations. In the long run, this can clearly affect their development potential as they are at increased risk of impaired brain function, lower immunity, less than ideal physical growth, or behaviour problems.
| Teenagers make a lot of food decisions on their own – and are heavily influenced by their peers. As we all know, they are often attracted to convenience meals and snacks, fast foods and soft drinks. |
Both girls and boys may feel peer pressure to be thin and restrict what they eat. So encourage a healthy weight, healthy food choices and daily physical activity.
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Encourage and support an interest in health, cooking, and nutrition
- Have nutritious snack foods readily available – including seeds, fruit, nuts and vegetable sticks. They will often eat whatever is to hand!
- Avoid shopping for any foods you don’t want them to eat. If it’s not in the house, they can’t eat it!
- Avoid buying high calorie desserts or snacks, such as potato crisps, soft drinks or ice cream
- Provide a good role model of healthy eating
- Discuss the basis of healthy eating:
- Eat three meals a day, plus healthy snacks
- Eat plenty of fibre and limit the use of salt
- Drink a lot of fresh water
- Limit caffeinated drinks and drinks with a high sugar content
- Steam, bake (without added fats or oils) or grill rather than frying. Anything deep-fried should be a rare treat!
- Try to avoid high-sugar and high-fat refined carbohydrate foods such as most biscuits, cookies and cakes
- Try to eat at least five servings of different fruits and vegetables (not including potatoes) per day. Fresh, frozen, dried, canned, crushed in smoothies and juices – all count!
- Eat more chicken and fish than red meats. For low-saturated-fat protein, try vegetarian alternatives to meat such as Quorn, soy, nuts, beans and pulses
- For carbohydrates, prefer whole grains to refined ones ie. wholemeal bread, pasta, rolls and bagels, brown rice, wholegrain couscous, wholegrain breakfast cereals
There is a huge amount of invaluable advice on nutrition and health for the whole family on www.drpaulclayton.com
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