Healthy Teen Eating: The Secret to Feeling Your Best

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Table of Contents

How Many Calories are required?
Keep It Heart-Healthy
Watch Calcium Intake
Nutrition And The Aging Adult
Dietary Requirements
Fiber, Vitamin D And Calcium

There are huge physical, emotional, social and intellectual changes happening during your teen (adolescent) years. These changes all impact how one feels about what they eat and their nutritional needs. For example, you already may have noticed how quickly you have been growing at certain times (so-called growth spurts), with an increased appetite and your clothes no longer fitting after wearing them only a few months.

Most teen-agers have a demanding schedule including homework, sports, and other extracurricular activities. To keep up with busy schedule and get enough energy and nutrients for optimal growth and development, it is important to learn health eating habbits which means eating a variety of healthy foods.

All teens should want to eat healthfully. They’ll feel their best and avoid problems related to poor nutrition, such as iron-poor blood (anemia), slow growth, anorexia, cavities and becoming overweight. Eating wisely helps to stay healthy as one becomes an adult in order to decrease chances of later developing high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis and some forms of cancer.

How Many Calories are required?

During teen years, the number of calories required varies with particular body size, activity level, and rate of growth. For example, during growth spurts you will need more calories and will probably notice an increase in appetite. On average, males 11 to 21 years old need between 2,500 and 3,000 calories a day, while females of the same ages need about 2,000 calories a day.

One needs an additional 600 to 1,000 calories each day if involved in vigorous physical activity. However, it is not necessary to count calories. The important thing is to eat nutritious foods — even if choosen a vegetarian diet — from each of the food groups every day.

There are enough calories and all the necessary nutrients if daily diet includes:

Grains (bread, cereal, rice, pasta) — six to 11 servings
Vegetables — three to five servings
Fruits — two or three servings
Dairy (milk, yogurt, cheese) — two or three servings
Meats (meat, poultry, fish, beans, nuts, eggs) — two or three servings.

Teens are still growing and also have a very high level of activity, they may need to eat something every few hours. In addition to breakfast, lunch and dinner, many teens feel their best when they eat snacks in mid-morning and after school. Here are some healthful snacks to choose:

Fresh fruits, dried fruits, fruit-filled cookies
Vegetables with low-fat dip
Cheese cubes, cheese sticks, yogurt, milk
Whole-grain bread, bagels, whole-grain crackers, unsalted whole-wheat pretzels, rice cakes, dry cereals (low or no sugar) with or without milk
Peanut butter, hummus, bean dip

Keep It Heart-Healthy

Teens, just like adults, should follow a heart-healthy diet and watch how many high-fat foods they eat. No more than one-third of your total calories in a daily diet should be from fat. Limit cholesterol to 300 milligrams a day.

The following suggestions helps to keep fat and cholesterol intake under control:

Drink low-fat or nonfat milk.
Eat only reduced-fat cheeses and yogurts.
Limit the amount of fried foods that you eat.
Choose foods that are cooked using low-fat methods such as baking, steaming, boiling, grilling, and broiling.
Eat fruits and vegetables for snacks rather than cookies, chips, ice cream, or other high-fat foods.
Limit the use of high-fat sauces, salad dressings, and spreads (for example, butter, margarine, mayonnaise).

Choose lower-fat items when eating out. Try a grilled chicken sandwich instead of a fried burger, a salad instead of fries, or pasta with tomato sauce instead of pepperoni pizza.

Watch Calcium Intake

Calcium is a mineral that is needed to build strong bones and healthy teeth. It is especially important to get enough calcium during the teen years because your bones are growing rapidly. Without enough calcium, bones may end up being thin and weak later in life (osteoporosis), which means a higher risk of bone fractures.

For most people, dairy products are the major sources of calcium and vitamin D (another important nutrient that helps the body absorb calcium), with two or three servings recommended each day. However, calcium intake during the teen years is often low because many teen-agers drink soda, sports drinks, and juice instead of milk. In addition, teen females, who may need even more calcium than teen males, often avoid dairy products because they are counting calories and think that all dairy products are high-fat foods. In fact, calcium can be found in many healthy, lower-fat foods.

Teens should get enough calcium every day. For teens, the recommended daily total is 1,300 milligrams. The best sources of calcium are calcium-rich foods such as dairy products. There are reduced-fat and even no-fat forms that have as much (and sometimes more) calcium as the higher-fat forms. Calcium also is found naturally in many non-dairy foods, or added to other foods, such as some brands of juice, cereal and bread. Foods that are good sources of calcium include yogurt, milk, fortified soymilk, fortified orange juice, cheese, tofu, sardines, collard greens and spinach.

Nutrition And The Aging Adult

Aging is a dynamic and complex process that results from cellular, physiological and psychological changes. Although many elderly individuals exhibit a decline in organ function and in metabolic activities, a number of them show no decline in functional status with age. This distinction has led to distinguishing “successful” aging from “usual” aging, which may reflect pathology more often associated with a lifetime of poor health habits, including poor dietary patterns, smoking, drinking, limited exercise and other stress-related factors rather than aging alone.

As you age, body becomes less forgiving, and one has to make more of an effort to eat well and stay fit. Ideally, one practices healthy eating habits throughout life. But most of us don’t live in an ideal world, and often we don’t pay attention to our health until we reach middle age and beyond. But middle age is still a good time to start thinking about how to stay healthy in later years. Nutritional needs are pretty much the same at 40, 50, 60 and beyond as they were when you were younger — with some minor variations.

Dietary Requirements

A decade long study of the elderly indicated that calorie intake per kilogram of body weight showed no association with age in men, suggesting that current weight, rather than age, determined energy intake. Intake of protein, as well as fat, carbohydrate and cholesterol, decreased slightly but not significantly with age. The results in women were similar. Over the nine years of the study, there were significant decreases in a number of dietary nutrients. However, these changes were offset by reductions in physical activity and/or changes in body composition. The lower energy intake didn’t result in changes in weight.

The decrease in total fat and cholesterol intake were related to a fall in plasma cholesterol levels. The study suggests that changes in lifestyle over time, rather than age per se, resulted in the dietary changes observed in this healthy elderly population.

Thus, as one ages, one needs fewer calories, but exactly how much one should eat still depends on how active you are. Because one is eating less food to maintain a healthy weight and have to be more careful about what one chooses to eat. As the years pass and one loses lean body mass (muscle), metabolic rate slows down and one burns calories more slowly. Exercise is the best way to maintain lean body mass and speed up metabolic rate.Even presumably healthy elderly people may exhibit vitamin and mineral deficiencies. For example, older people tend to have decreased exposure to sunlight that activates vitamin D.

They also are less likely to ingest vitamin D fortified foods and beverages.

Fiber, Vitamin D And Calcium

Fiber is more important than ever to prevent constipation and gastrointestinal conditions such as diverticulosis (formation of pouches in the lining of the large intestine).

At around age 40, calcium and other minerals start to move out of bones faster than they can be replaced. In women at menopause, the drop in estrogen (which helps bones hold on to calcium) causes greater bone loss than in men. To preserve bone health and prevent osteoporosis, older people should strive for 800 International Units (IU) of vitamin D daily. An inexpensive way to get enough vitamin D is by taking multivitamins. Most generic multiple vitamins contain 400 IU. Look for foods and drinks that have vitamin D added. One multiple vitamin combined with vitamin D fortified foods should be enough for most elderly people.

The general recommendation for daily calcium intake is 1,200 milligrams. Calcium supplements up to 1,000 milligrams a day are recommended for people who can’t get enough of the mineral from their diet. Experts frequently recommend calcium carbonate and calcium citrate for people who take supplements.

Although there is still much enthusiasm for anti-oxidants in healthy foods, taking anti-oxidant supplements does not provide the same benefit. Multiple studies have shown that vitamin E, beta-carotene and other anti-oxidant products don’t improve health outcomes. Instead, individuals should eat a variety of foods that will provide a rich natural source of these vitamins.

As you age, physical disabilities, such as loss of sight and mobility and a failing appetite (caused by dental problems, reduced saliva production and a decline in the ability to taste), make eating less rewarding for the elderly than for the young. By age 75, for example, people have only half as many taste buds as they did at 30. In addition, loneliness, depression and the financial restrictions of living on a fixed income can interfere with an older person’s ability to buy and prepare healthy food.

Because food is often associated with social events, preparing food and eating alone can be difficult for older people who have reached a stage in life where many of their loved ones have either died or moved away. For many, a loss of appetite follows the loss of companionship. Older men who have lost their wives (who did the cooking) may be at special risk.

The following tips may help provide better meals for an elderly person:

Lack of teeth and dental decay make chewing difficult, contribute to poor nutrition and also give food an abnormal taste. Many elderly people who have dentures don’t wear them because they’re uncomfortable. Bone loss, which occurs in osteoporosis, makes dentures hard to fit. Older individuals should have regular dental care.
If chewing is a problem, try softer foods that have been chopped or pureed.
Four or five smaller meals might be easier for an older person to handle than three larger ones.
Add a little more spice to foods to enhance their flavor.
If certain foods are disliked, try substitutes within the same food group. For instance, if milk is unacceptable, try yogurt, cheese or even low-fat ice cream.
Public and private programs offer meals for people 60 years and older at senior centers throughout the country. These programs provide social interactions that may be just as beneficial to an elderly person as the meals.

One way for seniors to pack a lot of good nutrition into a little meal is to drink it in the form of a shake. Start with a cup of low-fat or skim milk (or an alternative such as soy milk or almond milk, which can be found in health food stores) and a small banana in a blender. Depending on individual taste, add a spoonful of wheat germ or bran and/or another fruit such as strawberries, peaches, pineapple, mango or kiwi. A heaping spoonful of powdered nonfat dry milk or soy powder will add extra calcium and protein. Also look for milk and powders that are fortified with vitamin D.

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