In some ways I feel nutrition is the forgotten cousin of teenage health. Even though teens themselves care a lot about it.
From obsessing about their thigh gaps to their acne, from the impact of nutrition on their fatigue or their brains, from tummy aches and bloating, to the problem of eating disorders, what teens eat really matters. So, no book on teenagers would be complete without a close look at your teen’s diet.
The topic of teenage nutrition needs an entire book to do it justice, and this is not an encyclopaedia of food for your teenager. Instead, it’s meant to give you some practical advice about your teen’s eating, touch on the issues we see most in our practices, and discuss those that the experts we talked to get most concerned about.
Most importantly, we don’t judge you. In a busy household, with working parents, not enough hours in the day and more fights with your teen than you want to poke a stick at, this is not easy.
A lot of us eat far less healthily than we think we do. We imagine we eat enough vegies and fibre and that our snack consumption is low. But, if we kept a diary, we’d discover most of us could do much better. And what we eat as parents influences our children’s diets: they are watching us like hawks and their BS detectors are razor sharp. So, any change cannot be aimed at your teen alone. This needs to be a whole family approach, and you will reap the benefits as well, I promise.
Our teens aren’t eating well
Not a surprise news flash. . . Only one in three people aged 12–24 years eats the recommended two to three serves of fruit per day. Boys eat less fruit than girls. When it comes to vegetables, the situation is even worse. Only one in seven people aged 12–17 years eats the recommended four serves of vegetables per day, and only one in twenty people aged 18–24 years meets the guideline of five serves of vegetables per day.
One in four Australian children and adolescents is technically overweight or obese, and one in 12 is obese. And, while that number is stable and not increasing, it has so many negative implications for physical and mental health that we should all still be alarmed by it. The prevalence of obesity increases with age – up to 31 per cent by age 17. And 38 per cent of Indigenous children and adolescents are obese – a number that is increasing.
Does it matter? Yes. Research tells us that a good diet that starts in childhood or adolescence is likely to persist into adulthood. And the opposite is true: toddlers with a poor diet are more likely to grow into teens and adults with a dodgy diet.
It is more complex than simply ‘too much bad food, not enough good food’. There are other contributing factors: lack of sleep, lack of exercise, too much time on screens. . . But, when it comes to being overweight, diet is the thing that needs to change most. Science is yet to determine the optimum amount of ‘junk food’ (in the ‘junk food’ category, I am including white bread and crackers, many commercial breakfast cereals, any drink that’s not water, milk, tea or coffee, and most ‘snacks’, even if you buy them in the health-food aisle at the local supermarket. Many contain high amounts of fat, salt and processed carbohydrates that contribute to diseases such as diabetes.) One junk food touted as a healthy option is the Subway sandwich. Given that the ‘bread’ roll contains 10 per cent sugar, in 2020 Ireland’s Supreme Court ruled that it was not allowed to be called bread! Ideally, the amount of junk food your teen consumes should sit around zero. Given that’s not going to happen, let’s just say that a daily intake of junk food is catastrophic.
As I said, this isn’t a nutrition textbook; we have neither the space nor the head room to take a comprehensive look at all teenagers’ nutritional needs. So we’re going to head into the nutritional lowlights and problems we see the most, and also touch on the thorny issues of veganism, protein bingeing and the like.
Food tips for busy parents:
For parents who’ve battled the commute and are ravenously hungry themselves as they enter the house, standing in the kitchen for an hour to make a healthy meal for everyone might just not be feasible. I turned to nutritional counsellor Ginette Lenham for some helpful hacks to make dinner-time less challenging:
- Get organised. Pop on a podcast or audiobook and wash and chop vegies on Sunday. Store them in an airtight container in the fridge to use up during the week.
- Need to buy take-away? Don’t beat yourself up over it. Take-away doesn’t have to mean unhealthy – choose stir-fried vegetables with meat, seafood or tofu, or a poke bowl or big salad.
- Make your freezer your best friend. When you do cook, make extra so you can freeze half for another meal.
- Frozen vegetables are as nutritious as fresh. Keep a few different packs of peas, corn, spinach and beans in the freezer so you can serve vegies with every meal. A quick steam or zap in the microwave, a drizzle of lemon juice and seasoning, and they’re ready to go.
- Keep the pantry stocked with tinned foods such as legumes, tomatoes and tuna and some wholewheat pasta, so that you always have easy access to a quick, nutritious meal. Have a couple of super-simple go-to recipes, such as pasta with tuna and tomato sauce, if there’s nothing else available.
- If you can afford to use a meal-delivery service, maybe organise to have them for the nights of extra busy workdays.
- In summer, serve up a big platter of chopped vegies, hard-boiled eggs and a barbecued chicken with slices of multigrain sourdough bread or low GI wraps and dinner is ready . . . no cooking required!
- Take advantage of the prepared salads, green leaves and chopped vegies available in most supermarkets. They can be a huge time saver.
Extract from The New Teen Age by Dr Ginni Mansberg and Jo Lamble. (Murdoch Books RRP $32.99) How to support today’s tweens and teens to become healthy, happy adults.
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