Teenagers Nutrition

Young people's diets should sustain growth, promote health and be enjoyable. During this time, a number of physiological changes occur that affect nutritional needs, including rapid growth and considerable gains in bone and muscle.
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The teens are a time of rapid growth and development. Usually appetites match needs, but some may be attracted to trying fad diets. You might find that you are developing your own food style so education and information about the best choices of snacks and takeaways are important at this time. Remember it's the total diet that counts.
Teens have the freedom to make their own choices, and are eating out more, visiting fast food restaurants more often, and getting their lunches from school vending machines.
Expecting teenagers to bring a brown bag lunch to school when their friends are eating at fast food restaurants, or to snack only on carrot sticks when everyone else is eating chips, probably is not realistic.
Good nutrition equals vibrant health and clear, glowing skin. Some high school kids turn to a more healthy, natural foods diet to "stick it" to giant food conglomerates. Such kids love detecting labelling tricks or seeing how much air and how little cereal goes into those giant boxes, or discovering that food manufacturers replace real fruit with food dyes and artificial flavours.
With teenagers, it works best to teach them how to make better choices (even if they are not perfect choices) whether they are eating at home, school or in restaurants.
Improving eating habits among teens is crucially important for two reasons (among others): building strong bones and preventing obesity.
The foundation for a lifetime of strong bones is built during the teen and young adult years until about age 30. This represents their peak bone mass - the strongest their bones will ever be. Yet, research indicates that teenagers are not getting nearly enough calcium to build strong bones and that can lead to osteoporosis later in life.
Maintaining normal weight is critically important since obesity often leads to diabetes-type 2, high cholesterol and high blood pressure, conditions once seen most commonly in adults. For adults as well as children, the best way to treat and prevent these problems is a combination of healthy diet and exercise. In addition, positive eating patterns fostered during the teen years are very likely to last a lifetime.