Developing healthy eating habits in the teen years can help a person carry and mold these healthy habits into adulthood. The Center for Young Women's Health website reports that developing healthy eating habits will allow a teenager to keep her body strong, full of energy, at a healthy weight, developing normally and nourished with essential vitamins and minerals.
Eat Slowly
Teens are often rushed to finish their food quickly; this can cause the development of unhealthy eating habits. Teens should learn to eat slowly. This will help her learn what it feels like when her stomach feels full and how to stop eating when she feels full. It generally takes about 20 minutes after a person begins eating for the stomach to tell the brain that it is full. Therefore, if a teen eats too quickly and eats all her food in less than 20 minutes she did not space out her meal enough to prevent overeating. Teens should take small bites and rest in between servings or dishes.
Learn a Serving
To eat healthy a teen needs to be able to identify and recognize the size of a serving. The food portions that teens are often exposed too are much larger than a serving. Teens should recognize that a serving is generally half of a cup and that nutrition labels on food provide their own serving size. Also, teens should be given the visual reference of a serving of meat being the same size as a deck of cards. Learning a serving size will help a teen recognize when he is overeating and how many more servings of certain foods he needs to eat throughout the day.
Focus on Produce
Teens need to get in the habit of regularly eating fruits and vegetables and eating them without additional high calorie dips or spreads. Discovery Healthy website notes that teen's diets should contain at least five daily servings of fruits and vegetables. It is important that teens understand that they can eat servings of plain vegetables in abundance because vegetables are low in calories and dense in nutrients.
Importance of Water
Proper hydration is important to maintaining a healthy weight, warding off fatigue and keeping the body properly functioning. Drinking water throughout the day is an important factor in teens developing healthy eating habits. Teens should understand that water is often better than sugary sports drinks or sugary soda because it does not have calories or caffeine. Caffeine is a diuretic that causes the body too loose more water, which can increase the risk of dehydration.
Eat With Others
Teens should learn the benefits of eating meals with others. Eat with family or friends instead of eating in front of the television. This will cause a teen to eat slower and focus more on what he is eating rather than what he is watching on television. Also, when teens regularly eat with parents the bond between them becomes stronger.
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