Teens: Good Nutrition

by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

You've heard it all before. For as long as you can remember, your parents, your teachers, perhaps even your doctor, have been telling you to eat your vegetables, limit sweets, drink your milk.

Now, in your teen years, this advice takes on new meaning for a lot of very different reasons: How can you gain weight to put on muscle instead of fat? What's a healthy weight for you? How can you squeeze in a good, quick meal after school and before you have to be at your part-time job? All good questions, and because of the enormous changes that are going on in your body, the way you decide to deal with your nutrition needs now can make a big difference not only in how you feel today, but also in your well-being in years to come.

If you are between 15 and 18, you're completing your final major growth spurt, and are in the process of putting on nature's finishing touches for adulthood. For girls, the finishing touch means adding some fat padding. For boys, it means adding muscle and increasing the volume of blood. These changes often encourage girls to diet unnecessarily to stay slim, while boys may overeat to satisfy their appetites. Both can lead to health problems down the road, and, incidentally, probably will not do the job you want right now.

So what is the right approach to healthy eating?

A good start is to eat a variety of foods, as suggested in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, published by the U.S. departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services. Get the many nutrients your body needs by choosing a variety of foods from each of these groups:

• vegetables
• fruits
• breads, cereals, rice, and pasta
• milk, yogurt and cheese
• meat, poultry, fish, dried beans and peas, eggs, and nuts.

What's So Junky About 'Junk' Food?

The pace for teens is fast and getting faster. Added to pressures from school to prepare for college or a job, many teens take part in sports and work part-time. This often means eating on the run. Stack that on top of the snack foods you eat on dates or when you get together with friends, and the balance of your nutrients can get way out of kilter.

Many snacks, such as potato chips, fast-food cheeseburgers, and fries, have high levels of fat, sugar or salt — ingredients that are usually best limited to a small portion of your diet. Healthy eating doesn't mean that you can't have your favorite foods, but the Dietary Guidelines advise you to be selective and limit the total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium you eat. Our main source of saturated fat comes from animal products and hydrogenated vegetable oils, with tropical oils — coconut and palm — providing smaller amounts. Only animal fat provides cholesterol. Sodium mostly comes from salt added to foods during processing, home preparation, or at the table.

Fats are our most concentrated source of energy. Scientists know that eating too much fat, especially saturated fat and cholesterol, increases blood cholesterol levels, and therefore increases your risk of heart disease. Too much fat also may lead to overweight and increase your risk of some cancers.

Dietitians recommend that no more than 30 percent of your calories come from fats, and not more than 10 percent of these calories should be from saturated fat. Choose lean meats, fish, poultry without skin, and low-fat dairy products whenever you can. When you eat out, particularly at fast-food restaurants, look for broiled or baked rather than fried foods. Try the salad bars more often, but pass up creamy items and limit the amount of salad dressing you use to keep down the fat and calories. Look for milk-based high-calcium foods with reduced fat.

Spare the Sugar and Salt

Most people like the taste of table sugar. But did you know that other sweeteners are sometimes "hidden" in foods? There are sugars in honey, dried fruits, concentrated fruit juices, and ingredients such as corn syrup that are added to soft drinks, cookies, and many other processed foods. You can see what sugars are in packaged foods by looking at the ingredient list.

If you are a very active teen with high-energy needs, sweets can be an additional source of calories. But keep in mind that they contain only limited nutrients and that both sugars and starches can contribute to tooth decay.

A moderate amount of sodium in your diet is necessary, because sodium, along with potassium, maintains the water balance in your body. But for some people, too much sodium can be a factor in high blood pressure. Since processed foods often contain large amounts of sodium, it's wise to use salt sparingly when cooking or at the table — and to avoid overeating salty snacks like pretzels and chips.

When you exercise heavily and sweat profusely, you can deplete your sodium reserve, unbalance your body chemistry, and possibly become dehydrated. In extreme cases of profuse sweating, such as during training or competition, a dilute glucose-electrolyte drink may become necessary, but always with an abundance of water to make up for sweat losses.

What's All This About Fiber?

Whole-grain breads and cereals, dried beans and peas, vegetables, and fruits contain various types of dietary fiber essential for proper bowel function. Eating plenty of these fiber-rich foods may reduce your risk of cancer and heart disease.

The benefits from a high-fiber diet may be related to the foods themselves and not to fiber alone. For this reason, it's best to get fiber from foods rather than from the fiber supplements you can purchase in a store.

Be Aware of Alcohol

Alcoholic beverages deserve special mention. Drinking them risks good health and can cause other serious problems for teens. And although it is illegal for teens to buy alcoholic beverages, a 1994 survey conducted by the Department of Health and Human Services shows that 31 percent of high-school seniors and 20 percent of juniors reported being drunk in the past 30 days.

Teens who drink risk impaired judgment in their social relationships and endanger their own and others' lives if they drive after drinking. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, in 1996, 37 percent of fatal crashes involving 15- to 20-year-old drivers were alcohol-related

Alcoholic beverages contain calories but few if any nutrients. Drinking heavily can lead to poor nutrition if alcoholic beverages replace foods with needed nutrients, and alcoholism is not unknown among teenagers.

About the Author

www.fda.gov
FDA is A United States government body that oversees medical devices, including contact lenses, intraocular lenses, excimer lasers and eyedrops. In the US, these products must be approved by the FDA before they can be marketed.