Importance of Healthy Eating for Teens

Why is it important for a teenager to eat healthy foods?

As a teenager, our eating habits may determine our general well-being as we age. It is important for a teenager to eat health because we are growing - developing physically and mentally. By choosing to eat a healthy diet, we can help prevent long-term diseases, improve cognitive functions and mood, provide nutrients and energy for day-to-day activities, and promote healthy eating habits for the future.

Teenagers are some of the most active people. They're constantly moving around, juggling school, friends and often sports. In order to provide energy and nutrients for such an active lifestyle, teens need to eat a wide variety of healthy foods.

Adolescence is the time where changes are happening to a child's body. These changes carry over to adulthood. For example, some teens do not receive adequate amounts of calcium. As a result, they develop weak bones. As people age, they will naturally begin to lose calcium from their bones. For someone who already has weak bones to begin with, they are at a heightened risk for developing Osteoporosis, which results in fragile bones and easy fractures.

A healthy diet consists of adequate macronutrients (nutrients that we need in large amounts) and micronutrients (nutrients we need in smaller amounts). Macronutrients consists of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. Micronutrients are separated into two categories - minerals and vitamins.

Determining Daily Caloric Intake for Teens

One of the most common looked for things on a Nutrition Fact sheet is the amount of calories in that certain object. Common facts people are lead to believe are that you need to burn all the calories you eat to not gain weight, the less calories: the better, and that calories are just bad overall. These people don’t realize that we need calories in our diet to be healthy.

First, you need to know what a calorie is. A calorie is a unit of energy. The amount of calories in an object is the amount of potential energy you can receive from eating that certain food. In the macronutrients there are 9 calories in a gram of fat and 4 calories in a gram of protein and of carbohydrate. These may seem like somewhat large numbers, but they’re exactly what our bodies need.

Our body needs calories for everyday life. Since calories provide energy, they give us the ability to walk, run and do many other things that we don’t give a second thought about. These calories aren’t bad, but sometimes they’re not exactly a good thing either.

To be able to know how much is enough you have to use the factors you have which are your gender, age and activity level. On average, males usually need more calories than females and younger people (mainly teens) usually need more calories than older people. Kids and teens are usually growing during adolescent years so they need more calories to make sure they have the right amounts of energy. It’s also a known fact that people who are more active generally need more calories than people who don’t because they burn off calories faster.

Since there are so many factors of a “good” amount of calorie intake, there is no “right” amount. Teens in general can have the need anywhere from 1,800 to 3,200 calories in one day. According to MyPyramid less active teens should get about 1,800 to 2,400 calories, moderately active teens should get about 2,000 to 2,800 calories, and very active teens should get about 2,400 to 3,200 calories. Girls are usually have the lower amount of calories and boys are usually have the larger amount. Based on this alone is a good place to acknowledge how much you should be receiving.

Too many calories aren’t recommended as this can lead to becoming overweight. The energy that goes unused by your body is turned into fat which is almost always looked upon as bad. You can’t exactly burn all the calories you receive off, but you can maintain a healthy amount by eating healthy, being aware of how much you eat, and having physical activity for a good amount of the day.

Importance of Macronutrients

The three main Macronutrients are carbohydrates, proteins, and fats.

Carbohydrates - Carbohydrates provide immediate energy; they are the body's main source of fuel. At each gram, they provide 4 calories. According to the Dietary Reference Intake published by the USDA, a rang of 45-65% of our caloric intake should be from carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are essentially sugar molecules arranged in different ways. There are three main types of carbohydrates: sugar, starch, and fiber. Starches and fibers are chains of sugar molecules (complex carbohydrates), which are later broken down to be used as energy. These three groups are separated by their molecular composition and glycemic index.

The glycemic index classifies carbohydrates based on how quickly and how high a food will spike blood sugar in comparison to pure glucose. The higher the glycemic index, the quicker blood sugar rises. Factors that may affect a food's glycemic index include: processing, type of starch, fiber content, ripeness, fat/acid content and physical form.

Although fiber is a subset of carbohydrates, it is very different from sugar and starch. Sugars and starches are broken down by our digestive system into sugar molecules which can either be stored, or used immediately as energy. Fiber is an exception - it can't be broken down into sugar molecules. Fibers pass through our body undigested, but they bind to fatty substances. In result, eating at least 20 - 30 grams of fiber per day can lower bad cholesterol.There are 2 types of fiber: soluble fiber (which dissolves in water) and insoluble fiber. Insoluble fibers help regulate the digestive system, and prevent constipation.

Some kinds of carbs are better than others. A common myth is that any type of carbohydrate is bad for you - this isn't true. In fact eating a variety of "good" carbohydrates can lower your risk of heart disease by 30%, lower risk of type 2 diabetes, and many other chronic diseases. Examples of "good" carbohydrates include whole grains/whole wheat, beans, brown rice, whole oats, and bulgur.

Proteins - Proteins are large compounds made by combining amino acids. Usually 20 amino acids are used to create a protein, this is a complete protein. When a protein has less than 20, it is considered to be incomplete. Having a complete protein ensures that you are getting the right amount of amino acids that your body needs.

Your body needs a certain amount of protein to be “healthy” because they are used for a variety of things. One of the main functions of proteins is to contribute energy (calories) to the body. Each gram of protein usually contains 4 calories. Other functions are to transport molecules around our body and create enzymes that help with our energy level and metabolism.

All humans need oxygen which is a molecule transported around the body. The amount of oxygen you use depends on the physical activity you’re doing. Anaerobic activities require more oxygen while aerobic activities require less. Oxygen is transported in a protein called hemoglobin. Hemoglobin in the blood carries oxygen from the respiratory organs to the rest of the body. This results in the oxygen burning nutrients to provide needed energy. The process of getting our energy from food is called metabolism. Certain proteins cause chemical reactions that convert the fuel from food into the energy we need, and oxygen is only one of these.

The proteins we get come from the food we eat. The recommended amount of protein for an average teen is about 10-35% of your daily caloric intake. The average amount of proteins for girls (ages 14-18) is about 46g, and the average amount of proteins for boys (ages 14-18) is about 52g. However this amount changes depending on your activity level and growth. Sources of good protein are meat products (hamburgers, fish, chicken), dairy products (cheese, milk, yogurt), eggs, tofu, lentils, and soymilk.

Fats - Fats are molecules made of lipids. These molecules are usually stored for longterm energy. Once the energy received from carbohydrates is used up, the body resorts to using fat as an energy source. There are three different major types of fat. Trans fat and unsaturated fat are fats that are bad for you because they increase your body's LDL (bad cholesterol) and also increase the risk for heart disease. Unsaturated fat is supposed to be healthier and examples of these are olive oil and canola oil. Foods like Avocados are also healthy because they contain fatty acids which the body needs.

Foods to Avoid/Limit and Why

Foods that teenagers should especially avoid or limit are foods that are high in trans fat or saturated fat. These foods include but are not limited to chips, ice cream, processed meats, candy, canned foods, etc. Many processed foods should be avoided because of the procedure to make them requires a lot of chemicals to keep them staying "fresh". The chemicals used are usually not healthy at all and are not natural chemicals. An example of this is Spam. Spam is a processed food made from the pork shoulder and ham. The ham of a pig is made of the pig's hind legs and rear end, parts that most people would not find very appetizing. During the process to make Spam, there is a lot of salt added in order to preserve the already cooked meat. So much, that a 3.5 ounce serving of spam contains about 57% of the recommended intake value based on a 2,000 calorie diet.

Other foods that are important to limit eating are things that are high in sugar. Examples of these would be things like ice cream, cookies, and pie. Although ice cream may contain some of the dairy in one's diet, it also contains a lot of sugar so people will want to eat it. This is not to say that ice cream should be cut out of one's diet completely, but the amount that a person eats should be limited and not on a regular basis.

All of these things are not necessarily a bad thing but they're not exactly a good thing either. The intake of these foods should be limited in order for one to still have a healthy diet. Healthier options would be to make their own food, buy more organic products, and eat less processed products.

3-Day Meal Plan

Day One -

Breakfast: One serving of whole-wheat waffles with low fat syrup, organic orange juice, scramble eggs

Mid-morning Snack: 1/4 cup cashews, an apple

Lunch: stir fry tofu w/ brown rice, banana

Dinner: tomato basil soup, garden salad w/ low fat balsamic vinaigrette dressing, chicken marsala w/ whole grain pasta

Dessert: Orange slices w/ warm raspberries

Day Two -

Breakfast: One scoop of rice, 3 strips of bacon, One half cup of chopped, mixed fruit, bottle of water

Mid-morning Snack: Low-fat yogurt with bananas

Lunch: Chef Salad with low-fat ranch dressing, an apple, sugar-free pink lemonade

Dinner: Spaghetti with meat sauce, french bread, one cup of skim milk

Dessert: Strawberries, fat-free cool whip

Day Three -

Breakfast: Egg-white omelete with cheddar cheese, tomatoes, mushrooms, and broccoli; slice of whole wheat toast; glass of organic skim milk

Lunch: Smoked Turkey and Blue Cheese Salad with Low-fat Vinaigrette; glass of non-sweetened iced tea

Dinner: Salmon fillet with lemon-butter and caper sauce; 1/2 cup of cooked brown rice; sauteed vegetables (zucchini, bell peppers, onions, green beans)