Do you want to help your teenager cope better with the changes his/her body experiences during puberty? This is an especially challenging period when our children experience hormonal, metabolic and physiological changes that can have long term effects on their lives and health.
I personally remember how unsatisfied I was with my looks at this age. I thought myself too tall and too fat. Does this sound familiar? I had many questions that I was afraid to ask my parents and this lack of understanding did not help to build my self-esteem. Nowadays, more information is available and of course more or less every teenager is able to go on the internet and find the answers to their questions. However, the problem is children often ask how to fix the way they look rather than why it is happening and how to support themselves throughout this stage. Instead they try to mimic the body image that is constantly being advertised in magazines, clothing companies and media adverts. Additionally, nowadays teens spend much more time independently from their parents and have more of their meals away from home which makes it increasingly difficult to control what they eat. Often they’ll go to fast food venues because they are cheap and universally available. That is why during the most important stage of their development, a period when they require increasing amounts of good nutrients and minerals to meet their body demand, many of our teenagers actually eat a lot of meals that are both nutrient-depleted and full of unhealthy fats. On top of that, they consume different soft drinks which are in turn full of harmful additives and sugar. And of course, they would be resistant to any direct advice or pressure given to them from adults telling them how and what to eat and drink. Generally, nowadays our children are malnourished because they do not eat enough of the RIGHT food even though they eat plenty of it.
I hope that some of the tips below will help you to find the RIGHT solution to support your teenager in building the RIGHT relationships with the RIGHT food.
So, dealing with the puberty period is not easy and we need to support our children in this process. A good way to do this would be to discuss upcoming body changes in a positive way to prepare children for this time period so they can adapt to their new bodies faster, less painfully and without long-term “side effects”.
We need to be aware that increasing body fat is an absolutely normal part of puberty. At this stage of development children can gain up to extra 20% body fat and it is important to remember that this is not bad fat! It is needed for their bodies as a source of energy to go through massive changes. There is no need to go on any diets!
Tastes also change at puberty. Boys tend to eat more protein-rich foods believing that meat builds muscle. Girls, most likely crave sweets due to rising levels of estrogen. At the same time, girls want to stay slim and believe that eating less will keep them slim and sexy. However, young women require a certain amount of body fat to have a healthy menstrual cycle and healthy reproductive system.
Therefore, it is critical that children consume good, nutritionally dense food containing good proportions of protein (20%), healthy fats (30%) and the right carbohydrates (50%). And quality here is much more important then quantity!
For example, smart fats are absolutely essential for healthy brain function, good hair, healthy skin, and a strong immune system. It also helps to reduce the amount of anxiety and depression, which is an exceptionally huge issue at this age. Thus, it is very important they have plenty of Omega-3. So, more fish and less chips!
Protein builds, maintains, and replaces the tissues in our body, therefore the growing muscles, organs, and immune systems of teenagers require more protein. Due to more active muscle mass, teenage boys generally need around 25% more protein in comparison to the pre-teen stage. Whereas girls need a slightly smaller daily protein intake. So, eating food like beef, poultry, fish, eggs, dairy products, nuts, seeds, and legumes like black beans and lentils is very important. Choose the organic option if possible in order to avoid our children consuming hormones and antibiotics that are present in non-organic dairy and meat.
Teenagers require much more micronutrients and key nutrients at this age such as iron, calcium and zinc. Expanding blood volumes and growing muscle mass means our children need more iron, furthermore girls have extra iron needs because of their menstruation. Red meat is one of the richest sources of iron, a vegetarian diet can provide enough iron too, but vegetarians may need to work a bit harder to eat iron-rich alternatives to meat. Good vegetarian sources of iron include green leafy vegetables, legumes (e.g. beans and lentils) and whole grains.
Zinc is another particularly important element during puberty as it is involved in normal sexual maturation, supports cell division and many other important functions. Therefore, include it in your meals as much as possible by employing foods like garlic and chickpeas; add pumpkin seeds and sesame seeds to salads; indulge your teens in dark chocolate. You can also find zinc in egg yolks, oysters, turkey, salmon, pork and brown rice. I am sure you can prepare absolutely fantastic meals from these ingredients.
Rapid bone growth in teenagers requires a lot of calcium to be included in their diet. Traditional thinking of people needing to eat lots of dairy products in order to obtain calcium can be adjusted as we now know many alternative non-dairy sources of calcium. So, if your teenager doesn’t like to drink milk or eat yogurt, you can offer him/her crunchy broccoli, kale, edamame beans, figs, oranges, sardines, salmon and almonds.
Growing and developing teenage organisms require an additional 20-30% of vitamins. Eating a variety of ripe, fresh and preferably locally grown products is necessary every day. And this can be a very challenging task! Even though it is always better to get one’s increased needs of vitamins and minerals from real food rather than supplements, the erratic and nutrient-poor eating habits of most teenagers suggests that a daily intake of whole food based supplements like Juice Plus would be wise.
The following tips can help our children to make healthy food choices:
- Model good nutrition habits as early as possible. When your child has developed an appetite for a healthy, good quality food her/his body won’t like eating junk food. She/he will simply would not enjoy this type of food and will search for a healthier alternative, demonstrating to others the possibility of eating.
- When you choose products, plan meals and cook choose wisely the words that you use to describe food. Use more words like “good for your mood”, “great for your energy”, “brainy food”, “food for passing exams” and so on.
- When you are in town together with your kids show them better places to eat out rather than fast food restaurants. Carefully making sure that they do not realise that you are teaching them, explain why even though it might be a bit more expensive it is better to go to these places.
- Gently teach your children to say “NO” to friends inviting them to eat junk food or to have a soft drink full of additives and sugar. They need to learn to resist any supermarket food packaged in cheap plastic.
- Create and cultivate a strong emotional link between real food and things they care about. For example, eating a variety of raw vegetables and beautiful, healthy-looking skin.
- Keep lots of nutritional snacks and meals at home like fresh fruits, nuts, dried-fruits, dark chocolate, wholegrain biscuits, humus with vegetables and so on.
- Encourage your child to have her/his own opinion about media topics. Discuss together the real motivation behind a magazine or TV advertisement.
If you can think of any other good tips to add to this list, please, let me know in the comments. It would be great to have your input and for you to share your experiences in this area. I look forward to reading your stories.