Special Nutritional Needs of Teens

In theory a teenager needs three square meals a day and to eat several nutritious snacks a day to stay healthy. However most teens are as restless as they were when they were growing toddlers. That is because they are going through another growing spurt.

It may be hard for many different reasons to get your teenager to sit down with your family and eat a meal. However this is crucial to getting some control of his or her diet.

One trick is to assign one duty to your teen every day or two and that is to cook the entire family dinner. That way the teen is occupied with matters to do with nutrition and has less time to eat after school. Yet another benefit to this approach is that the food that your teen will consume over a period of months will be healthier than if you let someone else in the house be the chef.

National and population-based surveys, like one done at the have found that adolescents often fail to meet dietary recommendations for overall nutritional status and for specific nutrient intakes.

During this age emotional eating is prevalent. Many crave sugar and fat and succumb to that temptation to gorge on junk food. These results in a lower intake of a vitamin A, folic acid, fiber, iron, calcium, and zinc than is recommended

According to one study the low intake of iron and calcium among adolescent girls is of particular concern. Iron deficiency can impair cognitive function and physical performance, and inadequate calcium intake may increase fracture risk during adolescence and the risk of developing osteoporosis in later life.

If your adolescent seems stressed or sick then take him or her to a doctor. The culprit could very well be a lack of nutrients in the diet.

To stay healthy adolescents should do the following –
• Eat three meals a day, with healthy snacks.
• Increase fiber in the diet and decrease the use of salt.
• Drink a lot of water.
• For growing children and adolescents, it is generally recommended to watch total fat consumption in the diet, rather than counting calories.
• Eat balanced meals.
• When cooking for your adolescent, try to bake or broil instead of fry.
• Make sure your adolescent is not overdosing on sugar
• Eat fruit or vegetables for a snack.
• For children over 5, use low-fat dairy products.
• Decrease the use of butter and heavy gravies.
• Eat more chicken and fish.

It is also helpful for your teenager to eat by the guidelines established by the United States Department of Agriculture.

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Unhealthy Teen Eating Patterns

Health eating is crucial for teenagers. Adolescence is a time when they may be growing at a rapid rate. Hormones act up and cause all kinds of changes, as well as erratic behavior. It is essential to each a teenager how to make wise food choices as they will be having more and more meals outside of the family home at this age.

One habit that many teens get into is skipping meals. Watch out for this as this could also be a sign that they are doing recreational drugs or trying stick with some kind of fad diet. If you suspect your teen is skipping meals for any reason insisted that they take a full range of vitamin supplements to make out of it.

There are two very harmful patterns to watch out for in adolescents as they could signify real problems are store for him or her in later life. The first is undereating and the second is overeating.

Teens that undereat, particularly girls, really do tend to become anorexics or bulemics. Anorexia is a behavioral disorder that is the result of a young girl having a distorted self-image. No matter how thin she gets she never seems thin enough. Every time she looks in the mirror she seems ugly and fat.

This also leads to bulimia, which is the act of throwing up your food every time you eat. If your child disappears into the bathroom after every meal time you might want to make sure that she is not throwing up in order to remain thin. You should also make sure that he or she is not taking laxatives to keep weight down as long term every day use of these can damage the intestines and other digestive organs.

Bulemia also causes a great deal of trouble because the vomit can cause damage to the esophagus and teeth. A girl with this problem might be acting depressed, drink a lot of diet tea and have a highly irregular menstrual cycle.

Binge eating is just as bad. A teen will sit down and eat way too much food and then possibly throw up later. Those who do not throw up end up gaining a lot of weight; many end up gaining way too much weight.

To help out a teen who may be comforting him or herself by binge eating it is a good idea to send him or her to a counselor or psychologist to find out what might be at the bottom of feelings that are causing the problem. It is important to nip problems like anorexia, bulimia and binge eating in youth as they can develop in a life-long pattern that leads to severe health problem and a possible early death.

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