Teenagers require a balanced and nutritious diet to develop completely and become healthy in future. During teenage, if they are made to follow a trend of having food required for the overall growth of the body, they will be gained immensely for the rest of their lives as they will fall into that mold and follow the same diet plan further. Children usually do not like eating healthy food, as they are quite inclined towards taste and new cuisines and different kinds of food. The food taken during teen age must meet the energy requirement of the body of your child. If the diet does not produce the required amount of calories, then your child may suffer malnutrition and it is not good for the health of a teen as it may hamper the teen to maintain a good health in future. Let us discuss few tips on making your child take a proper diet and move towards a perfect health and physique.
Taking Breakfast
“Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise”. This quote needs to be followed by every teen if they want to create the base for a healthy life. After waking up on time, they should have a proper breakfast, which should include high fiber cereals, bread, milk, fruit juice, and eggs. These can provide your child with a perfectly balanced nutrition.
Taking Lunch
Teens usually get hungry very frequently as they do a lot of physical activities. The lunch should be heavy for your child so that they would not get any chance to have food from outside. Fast food and junk food should be avoided too. Make them aware of the health concerns associated with taking burgers, pizzas etc as lunch.
Checking Drinks
Make sure that your child gets enough water to drink as water is very critical nourishing element at this age. Ask your children to avoid sugary and soda drinks. Different flavors of tangs, fresh fruit juices, and green tea should be taken as fluid supplements for the body.
Controlling Snacking
Uncontrolled Snacking is the main reason of weight gain as it enhances the calories in your body and helps you put few extra pounds. Ask your children to stay away from oily snacks and advise them to have sliced fruit or vegetable with tasty yogurt dips, wheat crackers, low fat cheese slices and dark chocolates as snacks. They should avoid frequent snacking to gain a good health.
Understanding your Teen’s Desire
You need to understand what your child wants to have as diet. In case of teens, if you restrict them from doing something, they end up in doing the same. So if you want your child to develop a healthy diet plan for himself/herself, let them express their desire to have the food they want. Then you can calmly make them understand the negative impacts of the food they desire for and help them discard from their diet list as well. You can customize their diet plan by discussing the plan with them only.