How can you help a teenager eat healthy?

Shelly - posted on 07/23/2009

Gloria,

Don't buy the junk food but fruits and vegtables for snacks. You can't be with them 24/7 but when they are at home you can keep healthy food in the house if you don't buy it they don't eat it...

Marta - posted on 07/22/2009

personally, I would just remove all of the junk (and juice) from the house stop giving her money to buy food outside of the home so that all that she can eat are healthy options.

Rosemary - posted on 07/19/2009

A couple of things I thought of later....a teenage girl might be more keen to drink water if she knows it will help her to have beautiful skin. My daughter has read this in various magazines where celebrities give their favourite beauty tips

And if she is a Christian, a reminder that her body is a temple of the Holy Spirit and so it deserves to be looked after.

Gloria - posted on 07/17/2009

Thank you Anne, I'll try V-8 Juices and see :) :)

Anne - posted on 07/17/2009

Hi Gloria, Do your children like to cook? Our daughters really started to think about what they were eating when they started cooking with me. It takes longe and in our case was messier than if I did it my self. One thing you could try f they do not like veggies, is to use a v-8 type drink when making Spaghetti. You may need some more spices and herbs to make the sauce taste more like regular tomato sauce.
It sounds like you re doing all you can do. Just continue to model good eating habits.

Gloria - posted on 07/16/2009

I am a diabetic, so I cook and eat pretty healthy, but our kids don't always want whats healthy..... If you know what I mean.......I always try-out some dishes on the Food network, .......we buy most of our foods at the World's Farmer's Market....As a parent you can only try. I appreciate you all :)

Trisha - posted on 07/16/2009

I would say the first thing to do is to model healthy eating and cook healthy meals as often as possible. You cannot see or control what she eats when she is away from you, so by cooking healthy at home you can be assured that at least then she is eating healthy.



Also, since she is so hung up on juice--maybe you can reduce the sugar content by buying juice with less sugar (or if you mix it) mix it with less sugar. Refuse to buy things that you do not want her to eat. Serve a healthy meal and if she refuse to eat it--do not allow her to sanck on anything else. The doctor always told me--if they get hungry enough they will eat what you put before them. Some people say this is cruel--but it really works!



But the key is to model healthy eating, refuse to but junk foods, cook as healthy as possible, and try to foods. Sometimes just a new recipe is exciting!

Jennifer - posted on 07/16/2009

Try reading, The Healthiest Kid in the Neighborhood by William Sears MD I found it very helpful in inproving our entire families over all health. It motivates you to be a better example too. Maybe she'd even be willing to read it or parts of it. As far as not eating breakfast my dear Mama struggled with this with me and then as an adult knowing the "importance" I struggled with it. In all actuality most of the time if I eat withing the first hour of waking I feel worse. So I take something with me to eat when I do get hungry and if I am home protien settles best on my stomach. When I was a teacher I would cook a slice of ham on my George Foreman to eat on my drive to school. Sausage sticks and bacon are satisfying too. I don't worry about it any longer though and often do not eat breakfast, my body is just a little differant. Someday she will appreciate your efforts, I knowI do my Mom's!

Rebekah - posted on 07/16/2009

When I was a teenager I never ate breakfast - my lunch was big, I snacked throughout the entire day, rarely drank water mainly juice and soda, and I had a big dinner, plus snacks throughout the night. I wouldn't worry too much. As long as your teenager is healthy and takes multi-vitamins, give it a rest. Juice is good for a person - least it's not ONLY soda, like some teenagers. :)

Johnnie Ann - posted on 07/16/2009

I know it's hard to do but sometimes you just have to face the fact they are not going to eat ,when my son and daughter were teens they wouldn't eat breakfast so I got them some carnation breakfast something that would break the fast yet they would drink it on the way out . As far as eating though they wouldn't put anything in their mouth .Hope this helps .

Gloria - posted on 07/16/2009

Thank you all ladies :)!!

Sharell - posted on 07/16/2009

Try changing it up...give her her favorite fruit or find out what she likes; flavored oatmeal, fruit in cereal, etc...that's healthy. Also with the water, I myself have a hard time drinking water so I get the Crystal Lights and I find myself drinking more water. There are ways to come to a healthy compromise, keep introducing her to different things until you both find what she likes but until then....keep insisting!

Rosemary - posted on 07/16/2009

My teenage daughter loves to drink milk, and will also drink plenty of water in hot weather. But I do have a problem getting her to eat in the morning. It used to be a choice of cereal or toast, but now I let the children eat what they like from a wider list, whatever we have in of: sausage rolls, pork pies, any kind of fruit or bread, ham sandwhiches, cheese sandwhiches. I know some of those have too much fat, but in our family we tend more to be underweight than overweight, and I have decided at the moment whatever gets some calories into them before school is healthy. In the evening I cook a balanced meal. After school they can have a piece of cake or two biscuits, and after that it's bread or fruit if they need more snacks, so mostly they do get their 5 fruit & veg a day. I think I myself have a reasonable balance between fun foods and nutritious ones, and the best way to get children eating lots of fruit is to let them see mum enjoying it, I think. Probably the most important think about healthy eating is not to let it become a power struggle. You can't make a teenager eat anything! You can't stop them eating "bad" things when they are out. What can all too easily happen is a child or teenager learns to use eating or not eating as a weapon, either just to wind you up, or as a bargaining tool. If this gets a firm hold, it can lead to very unhealthy attitudes to eating. The reason for me to eat needs to be that I am hungry, not that mum says I'm hungry! Teenagers need to learn to recognise what their own body needs, and what is reasonable within the family budget. (about juice, for example, I just give us each one glass a day as one portion of fruit, and say it's too expensive to drink it all the time)