Healthy Eating Tips for Teens

If I had to explain the core of a healthy diet for teenagers in one sentence, it would definitely not be "to completely give up milk tea snacks and prepare meals according to the nutrition table every time", but "eat 70% of the main meals to have enough basic nutrition, and the remaining 30% can be reserved for your favorite foods" - this is the most practical conclusion after I have been in the adolescent nutrition clinic for 5 years and have seen thousands of cases.

I met a 14-year-old girl before. Her parents were typical "nutritional anxious people" and forced her to drink 500ml of pure milk and eat two hard-boiled eggs every day. Even the bread for breakfast had to be whole wheat and oil-free. As a result, she secretly poured the milk into the sewer and went to a fried skewers shop as soon as she left school. She gained 15 pounds in one semester and was found to be slightly hyperlipidemia. In fact, there is really no need to be so extreme. Take calcium supplementation as an example. The traditional dietary guidelines do recommend a daily intake of 300-500ml of milk and dairy products. However, if you are naturally lactose intolerant and get diarrhea after drinking it, or you just can't smell the smell of milk, you can use sugar-free soy milk or high-calcium tofu instead. As long as the total calcium intake reaches 1000-1200mg/day, it is enough. There is no need to stick to a certain food.

Speaking of this, someone must ask, can milk tea, fried skewers, iced cola and other "junk foods" in the eyes of adults really be eaten casually? That’s not what it means. Last month, a 16-year-old basketball player came for a follow-up consultation. He had to drink two cups of full-sugar iced milk tea every day for three months in a row. His last physical examination revealed that his uric acid level was close to the critical level. I didn’t ask him to quit milk tea completely. I just asked him to drink a 500ml bottle of electrolyte water to cushion his stomach after each game. I changed the milk tea to a maximum of two times a week, and chose three-thirds of sugar and less ice. I will check again this month and the uric acid has returned to the normal range. There are actually different voices in the academic world on this point. Most of the older generation of nutrition researchers advocate that teenagers should completely stay away from processed foods that are high in sugar and oil. However, more and more clinical nutritionists now support the idea of ​​"flexible diet" - after all, teenagers are already curious about novel flavors. The more explicit the prohibition, the easier it is to secretly eat more, and even develop into emotional overeating, which is not worth the gain.

Oh, by the way, there’s another little detail that many people haven’t noticed: Don’t stock up on ready-to-eat high-sugar, high-salt snacks on your desk or bedside. I have seen too many students unconsciously touch the potato chips and lollipops next to them while they are doing their homework. By the time they realize it, they have already finished most of the bag, which in turn delays their main meal. It is better to replace these positions with washed cherry tomatoes, crispy dates, or a small handful of original nuts, which can be easily eaten when you are hungry.

There are also many girls in middle school and high school who are afraid of getting fat and secretly go on a diet to lose weight. They only eat two mouthfuls of rice in the cafeteria at noon and do not even dare to touch meat. As a result, they feel dizzy in the third class in the afternoon and cannot even listen to the knowledge points taught by the teacher. There was a girl who was a sophomore in high school who did this for half a year, and her aunt delayed her arrival for more than two months. I asked her to add a fist-sized portion of multigrain rice to each meal, and eat deep-sea fish or boiled shrimp twice a week. It took more than three months to slowly adjust and return to normal. One more thing to say here is that the adolescent stage is the time when the body is growing. As long as the BMI is within the normal range, there is no need to lose weight. If you really want to control your weight, it is better to run two more laps, which is much more reliable than starving.

Speaking of which, when I was in high school, I also loved to save my pocket money to buy spicy strips at the school gate. My mother didn't scold me at that time, nor did she ban me. She just made a promise to me that I must eat an apple before eating spicy strips. As a result, I was almost full every time I finished eating the crispy and sweet apples. I would not be full after eating two spicy sticks at most. In the end, I was too lazy to buy them. After all, a pack of spicy sticks costing ten yuan was wasted after just two bites. It was better to buy a glass of ice soda and drink it.

In fact, if you really want to talk about it, there are so many golden rules that teenagers must abide by in their diet. There is no need to calculate the nutrition facts every day. As long as they eat enough vegetables, protein and staple food for meals most of the time, and occasionally eat something they like to satisfy their cravings, and there is no physical discomfort, then it is completely fine. Oh, by the way, don’t forget to drink more water. Drink at least 1500ml of warm water every day. Don’t drink drinks as water. I have to repeat this to every child who comes for consultation, haha.