Healthy Eating for Pre Teens and Teens

Informationen zum Autor Leslie Beck! RD! a registered dietician! is a leading Canadian nutritionist and the bestselling author of eleven nutrition books. She is the national director of nutrition at Body Science Centers. Zusammenfassung Healthy Eating for Preteens and Teens is a practical family guide that covers every aspect of essential nutrition to help raise healthy teens. In a super-size-me world! Leslie Beck provides strategies for making healthy food choices and establishing good eating habits for life. Healthy Eating for Preteens and Teens includes: How to determine a healthy body weight All the facts on carbohydrates! protein! fat! water! and other fluids Making healthy food choices when eating at home and school! and in restaurants and food courts Nutrition advice for vegetarian teens Weight control strategies for teens Nutrition advice for sports Understanding and dealing with eating disorders Over 60 healthy recipes for breakfasts! school lunches! dinners on the fly! and snacks

Auteur
Leslie Beck, RD, a registered dietician, is a leading Canadian nutritionist and the bestselling author of eleven nutrition books. She is the national director of nutrition at Body Science Centers.

Résumé
Healthy Eating for Preteens and Teens is a practical family guide that covers every aspect of essential nutrition to help raise healthy teens. In a super-size-me world, Leslie Beck provides strategies for making healthy food choices and establishing good eating habits for life.

Healthy Eating for Preteens and Teens includes:

• How to determine a healthy body weight
• All the facts on carbohydrates, protein, fat, water, and other fluids
• Making healthy food choices when eating at home and school, and in restaurants and food courts
• Nutrition advice for vegetarian teens
• Weight control strategies for teens
• Nutrition advice for sports
• Understanding and dealing with eating disorders
• Over 60 healthy recipes for breakfasts, school lunches, dinners on the fly, and snacks

Échantillon de lecture

Introduction

Adolescence is one of the greatest periods of change during our lifetime. Changes occur in all realms of human development—physical, emotional, intellectual, even spiritual. Body shapes are changing, independent thinking begins, and teenagers take on the social values and roles of adulthood. It’s a time of new discoveries and opportunities, but also of anxiety and stress.

On the physical level, adolescence brings on rapid growth and hormonal change. The onset of adolescence is typically associated with the start of puberty and ends when an adult identity and adult behaviours are accepted. The World Health Organization and the Canadian Paediatric Society define adolescence as the period between the ages of 10 and 19 years, and for the purposes of this book, I have adopted this definition. In the chapters that follow I provide nutrient recommendations for preteens and teens aged 9 to 13 years, and older teenagers, those aged 14 to 19 years. Wherever I refer to “teens,” I mean to include preteens, unless I specify otherwise.

Most girls begin their growth spurts between the ages of 10 and 13 years, while most boys grow more between the ages of 12 and 15 years. Nearly every organ in the body develops during these times of faster growth, including bones, muscles, and sex organs. That’s why the teenage body demands more energy, iron, zinc, and calcium than at any other age.

Fortunately, once the growth spurt begins, teenagers’ appetites rev up and they begin to eat more food. And if you have teenage boys, I’m sure you find that keeping the fridge and cupboards full is almost a full-time job. If teenagers make nutritious food choices, they can satisfy both their increased hunger and higher nutrient needs.

Yet, living in the teenage world makes adolescents particularly vulnerable to poor eating habits. As teens assert themselves and become more independent from parents and teachers, their food habits change. Teenagers have more control over their eating habits and more access to foods outside the home, compared to younger children. Lifestyle changes such as having a part-time job, getting a driver’s licence, and dating mean that teenagers will spend more time away from home—and from the healthy meals you prepare. Pressure from friends, coaches, and the media can also affect a teenager’s food choices.

Many of my clients know that what’s good for them is also good for their children. As is the case for adults, teenagers’ eating habits can affect their energy level, physical fitness, mental performance, and health. Sure, teenagers are growing and need more calories, but there’s no good reason for those calories to come from foods high in fat and sugar.

Over the past 15 years, I have counselled many teenagers about nutrition. I’ve helped overweight teens slim down and navigate the fat and sugar traps on cafeteria and camp menus. I’ve educated teenagers about healthy vegetarian diets, and I’ve advised others about sport-specific nutrition.

There’s never been as much demand for nutrition information as there is today. Teenagers and adults are more aware of nutrition than they were even a decade ago. My clients come to me looking for sound, credible, and relevant information about how their food choices affect their well-being.

It’s a confusing world out there, sometimes even for a nutritionist like me. Conflicting news stories about nutrition, fad diets, and a growing number of “magic bullet” supplements can make even the most nutrition-savvy person’s head spin. Given today’s overwhelming amount of health information, it can be a tough task to make sense of the foods you eat.

Growing Up Overfed and Undernourished—and at Risk of Heart Disease

Only recently have researchers, health professionals, and, subsequently, the media taken an interest in the nutritional health of our children. It’s unfortunate that it’s taken an epidemic of obesity and type 2 diabetes to get our attention. Perhaps we ought to call it the North American Paradox—the fact that we live in an affluent society with access to medical care, nutritious foods, and plenty of open green space, yet so many of our youth are growing up overweight, undernourished, and sedentary.

What’s more, today we’re witnessing in teenagers the health problems that accompany both over- and under-nutrition. Risk factors for heart disease, including high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and type 2 diabetes, as well as iron deficiency anemia and rickets, a bone disease caused by a lack of vitamin D, are becoming more prevalent among adolescents.

If there is any time in a person’s life when he or she is expected to be in the best health, it is during youth. Yet, consider the fact that almost one-third of Canadian adolescents rate their health as no better than “good.”1 Adolescents who are obese, physically inactive, or who eat a poor diet are more likely to convey negative views of their health.

Overweight and obesity is a major concern among Canadian youth. Over the past two decades, rates of obesity have quadrupled among children. In 2001, 5% of kids aged 12 to 19 were considered obese, with the prevalence among boys almost double that of girls. And it seems that many more teens are on their way to obesity: 17% of boys and 10% of girls are now classified as overweight.2 Statistics for younger children are even more alarming.

These numbers are frightening for a few reasons. For starters, obese adolescents are more likely to become obese adults than are their normal-weight peers. It’s estimated that 70% of obese teenagers will remain obese in adulthood. Obese teenagers are also more likely to suffer phy…