Teenagers’ Healthy Diets: What Are They?

It is always an essential question for every parent: how to make sure that my son or daughter eats enough and eats healthy? We live in the age of so many processed foods enriched with synthetic additives, so the health concerns are not without a solid base.

Why Teenagers’ Nutrition Is So Important?

It is because they grow; their body develops, the hormonal changes take place, and how this whole process will continue will affect the health state of a child for the whole their life.

Another thing is that teenagers are school kids, which means that their diet should provide both: a healthy nutrition and brain work support. It often includes fractional and easily digestible meals. Since proteins are the “bricks” of the body, a teenager should have enough of them during their daily meals. According to dietitian studies, a teenager should have 25% of daily allowance of protein from breakfast, and 35% from lunch; the same percentage is for fats, carbohydrates, minerals and vitamins.

The meals schedule should be like the following:

- A breakfast before going to school;

- Second breakfast in school (around 10-11 o’clock)

- Lunch (at home or in school) – around 1 pm

- Dinner – not later than 2 hours before going to bed.

As for the teenager’s menu, there should be less of fried foods, synthetic additives, salt and spices. No fast food! Yes, it is difficult and we so much got used to it, but believe me – it is simply a junk food that will gradually ruin the foundation of your child’s health. The kid’s health foundation should be strong to resist the diseases throughout the life; if it is weakened from the very beginning, what can we expect from in later years?

The task for the parents is to teach their kids how to identify bad foods and avoid them; they should inculcate a habit of healthy eating in their children.

Another problem is teenagers’ obesity; to help that there are good healthy diets for losing weight. What are they? Nothing but healthy meals! Especially vegetarian diets work great to balance kids’ weight and prevent kids obesity. While it is not obligatory for your kids to follow a vegetarian diet (they should make their choice in life later when they grow up a bit), if parents follow a healthy lifestyle, their kids may want to do the same. Yes, with teenagers it is not always the case, but believe me, your own inspiring conduct will leave a positive impression on your teenager kids.

Do not force your children to follow some strict diet; you may not only ruin their health, but you will affect them psychologically, you will suppress their will power, and this will create a negative pattern in their consciousness in relation to healthy foods and diets, and they will never follow any of them in the future. Act by your own example and friendly attitude. Love is the best teacher.

Here I’m not going to give you a strict diet menu to follow but rather some tips and advices how to create your own good healthy eating diets for teenagers.

Good Healthy Diets For Teenagers – Guidelines

Your teenager child should have vegetable soups. There also should be plenty of cereals and porridges (porridges – are one of the healthiest meals, really) – buckwheat and oatmeal are the best. They should eat protein bread – it has fewer calories and satisfies hunger for a long time because it stays longer in the stomach. Including seafood is a good idea too: they rich in vitamin C and valuable minerals. All dairy products are welcomed. Reduce fried foods as much as possible.

For teenagers between 12 and 17 dinner should be not later than 2 hours before going to sleep.

The older a child becomes, the more foods they can eat: sometimes it is possible to eat mushrooms and drink coffee. But the general trend should be towards healthier foods.

In general, for boys and girls the daily meals should consist of 30% fat, 20% protein and 50% carbohydrates.

In average, for girls it is allowed to take 2600 calories (2500 kcal before they are 13); for boys there can be 3000 calories a day.

In case of active sports, the calorie intake may be increased by 15-20%; if the teenager is obese, the calorie intake should be determined by a dietitian.

Another good thing is to do “light” days from time to time, when a child consumes light foods; the contents of fat are reduces to 30%, sweets are completely removed, and the protein intake is increased to 100 g per day.

Sample menu diet for teens 12-15, 16 and 17 years:

First breakfast: 2 toast with butter and cheese, tomato + tea or coffee weak

Brunch: nonfat yogurt and an apple

Lunch: 200 grams. of spaghetti + salad (dressing – 1 tsp. of olive oil and lemon juice as well)

Afternoon snack: boiled carrots or cauliflower + low fat yogurt cup

Dinner: baked with herbs and tomato + tomato juice

Examples of dishes / foods for breakfast:

Casserole of cheese and dried fruit, banana, apple, nuts, buckwheat porridge, cottage cheese casserole and rice. Drinks – tea, weak coffee, milk, yogurt.

Examples of dishes / foods for lunch:

Baked potato, cabbage, rice, mushrooms, vegetable soup, steamed vegetables. Drinks – tea, juice.

Examples of dishes/ foods for dinner:

Cooked vegetables with bread and tomato, cheese and sour cream and apricots, vegetable salad with tofu. Drinks – herbal tea with honey, milk, tomato juice.

Note: as you have probably noticed, the sample menus are all vegetarian – this is because the author of this blog is a vegetarian and doesn’t want to promote products obtained by violence. If you feel like adding something else to these menus, base your considerations on the guidelines given above. I hope these tips will be helpful to create your own good healthy diets for teenagers or find those that fit your teenager kids’ needs.