For girls, the teen years can be both exciting and overwhelming. With your hormones raging and your body changing in unpredictable ways, you may attempt to gain control by dieting or by following erratic eating patterns. But making healthy nutrition choices now can help you develop a healthy woman's body, and can set you up for lifelong wellness.
Nutrition Basics
The nutrients in the foods you eat provide fuel for energy, building blocks for muscle and bone, and vitamins and minerals to keep your systems running smoothly. However, it is possible to eat too many calories and still not get all the nutrients you need. To get the most nutrition from your diet, GirlsHealth.gov recommends you get most of your calories from fruits and vegetables, whole grains, fat-free or low-fat dairy, lean meat, fish, skinless poultry, eggs, nuts and legumes. Go easy on foods containing saturated fats, trans fats, added sugars and added sodium.
Managing Body Weight
Media images of rail-thin models often have little in common with average women's bodies. Yet, many girls perceive the natural process of growing breasts and widening hips as a sign that they are getting fat, and they may become obsessed with their weight and dieting to gain control. A University of Minnesota study of 2,516 teenagers published in the December 2006 issue of the "Journal of Adolescent Health" found girls who weighed themselves frequently were more likely to engage in unhealthy eating behaviors. In the study, frequent weighers gained an average of 33.3 pounds over five years, compared with 18.6 pounds for girls who didn't weigh in frequently. Eating a healthy, balanced diet and staying physically active are the best strategies to control your weight as your body matures.
Bone Density
During your teen years, your bones are growing and storing up minerals that will determine your bone density for the remainder of your life. Getting plenty of calcium from your diet and vitamin D from fortified foods and sunlight will help you develop strong bones. GirlsHealth.gov recommends you avoid smoking, alcohol and cola soft drinks, which are high in phosphoric acid that leaches calcium from your bones. Weight bearing exercise also helps to increase bone density. Restrictive dieting and overexercising, on the other hand, can lead to female athlete triad, a syndrome that begins with disordered eating and leads to weakened bones. Eating enough calories from healthy foods to offset calories burned during exercise is the best way to avoid female athlete triad.
Energy
Food provides energy for your body, and eating too little can make you feel tired. But even if you eat enough, you may feel tired if you don't get enough dietary iron. Iron is a mineral that your body uses to manufacture hemoglobin, the protein that gives red blood cells their color, and to which oxygen attaches to be carried to your cells. When your cells, especially your brain cells, don't get enough oxygen, you may feel tired and lethargic. Because you lose red blood cells during your monthly period, you are at risk for iron deficiency, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Red meats, legumes, spinach, and cereals fortified with iron are good dietary sources.
References
- GirlsHealth.gov; Nutrition; Healthy Eating Basics
- MSNBC.com; Teen Girls Should Scale Back Their Weigh-Ins; Associated Press, December 7, 2006
- TeensHealth.org; Female Athlete Triad
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Nutrition for Everyone; Iron and Iron Deficiency
- GirlsHealth.gov; Nutrition; What Girls Need to Know About Bone Health
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