Learning to eat a nutritious diet sometimes appears challenging but can be a rewarding, enjoyable process for teens and their parents. A teenager's body is developing and has increased demands placed on it. A diet that provides adequate nutrition for this process is crucial.
Balance
A nutritious diet is well balanced and includes elements from the major food groups---grains, vegetables, fruits, oils, dairy and protein. Of these food groups, grains and vegetables should be present in the highest amounts. Evaluate your diet to see whether you are receiving a balanced amount of these foods. A varied, healthy diet is the best way to make sure you're receiving the vitamins and minerals you need to build a healthy body.
Calcium
Calcium is important to teens, and especially young women. It's worth it to develop strong bones during your teen years---it will be an investment which will last you a lifetime. Besides building strong bones, calcium plays a role in nerve transmission and muscular contraction. Good dietary sources of calcium include dairy products, green leafy vegetables and calcium-fortified foods (orange juice, breads and cereals commonly have extra calcium added to them).
Iron
Iron is another nutrient important to a teen's diet. Iron helps with growth and development, as well as with oxygen transportation. Iron is especially important for teenage girls because of the increased blood loss they experience as menstruation begins. Iron can be found in meats, beans, eggs, green leafy vegetables and iron-fortified foods.
Empty Calories
The lifestyle of a teen makes it easy to fill up on "empty calories" that provide little or no genuine fuel for the body to operate and grow on. Foods like candy bring a false sense of fullness and often leave a teen with little or no appetite for foods that will fortify his body. Evaluate your snacking habits to see whether you're denying your body the healthy, long-lasting fuel it needs.
Snacking
Finding healthy alternatives to the usual snack foods such as candy bars or soda pop is not hard, but takes planning. Experiment with healthy snacking options, and learn to pack them in your school bag or sports bag. Dried fruit makes a delicious snack, especially when combined with nuts. Cheese sticks or flavored yogurt satisfies your hunger as well as provides healthy protein and calcium. Fruits are easy to transport and provide a quick boost to your blood sugar.
Habits
Changing unhealthy eating habits may be difficult at first, but it's worth the reward of taking responsibility for your health and finding tasty, nutritious alternatives to a "junk food" diet. Keeping a food journal for a few days can help evaluate what you actually eat, and provides a good framework to work from as you become involved with building a healthy body.
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