Gillian McKeith's Food Bible (35 page)

Teenage diets are notoriously poor. This is a serious problem because increased nutrition is vital and needed most during growth spurts and the onset of puberty. As a parent, make it your business to know what they are eating outside the home, difficult as that may be. Please be engaged and proactive with them.

Food aside, physical activity levels can be low in teens. I know many adults who were put off exercise for life by badly taught PE at school. Encourage the school to offer more varied, fun activities. Build exercise into your family life—cycle on the weekends, walk the dog, go swimming. If they get into the exercise habit now, they’re more likely to stick with it for life.

DO

Continue to offer healthy meals, even if they are snubbed. Offer fruit when a hungry teenager returns from school and provide healthy snacks for breaks. Ban eating while in front of the television. Do your best to sit down at a table. Make eating a family occasion as much as you possibly can. Teens can seem lazy but I contend they need to be inspired and really listened to. So strike a deal with your teen and encourage them to stay active and get at least an hour of exercise a day. Reward them with an outing, not junk food! Send teens on errands and involve them in household chores—tasks that keep them away from the television and computer.

Encourage your teen to eat breakfast. Eating first thing in the morning benefits thinking power and will help them get really fit.

Banish refined carbohydrates and drinks high in caffeine content. Encourage your teenager to eat plenty of complex carbohydrates, such as fresh vegetables, brown rice, whole grains, sprouted seeds, nuts, and seeds. These prevent blood-sugar imbalances, and also serve to spur endorphin production for happy feelings.

Include “good mood” foods (that contain tryptophan) in your family meals, including oil-rich fish, such as salmon and sardines, avocados, seeds, dried apricots, walnuts, raw cacao beans, turkey, chicken, and bananas.

Even if teens don’t appear to be listening, you can be sure they will be if you are speaking in a kind and loving manner. Finally, tell your teenager that Gillian wants a word in private without mom or dad around. They just need to go to www.GMKzone.com for teens only—no adults allowed please! But rest assured, you’ll be glad they found me. Just don’t tell them that!

DON’T

Put your child on a fad diet. The teenage years are a period of intense growth and development and teenagers need plenty of nutritious food to grow into their natural body weight.

Force the issue. If your teenager is overweight or obese they will likely feel embarrassed by their size. Please be sensitive, soft, and kind. Try to get your teen to open up to talking and recognizing issues without further embarrassment. Talk openly with them. Change the whole family’s eating habits and choice of leisure activity so that healthier options become a way of life.

Six years ago my partner left me and my son and I had quite a few dark months. I didn’t eat properly and smoked like a trooper. I have since found a wonderful man who just loves to cook and we are getting married soon. I have given up smoking and eat all the lovely healthy foods you recommend. Now I am fit, healthy, and extremely happy, along with my son, who has grown into a well-mannered, intelligent boy. My skin has never glowed so much and I have never smiled so much. So thank you Gillian for all your wonderful healthy eating tips.

Girls

Just as girls start to notice their body shape, Mother Nature makes life difficult for them. Girls change shape, gain weight in different places, sprout body hair, and between the ages of 11 and 14 will have to come to terms with periods. You won’t be surprised to read that a decent diet and regular exercise will make all these transitions much smoother and easier to deal with. A melting pot of hormones means teens will always be prone to mood swings. But food most definitely affects mood, so help them resist the rubbish.

Good nutrition is critical since a teenage girl grows faster during adolescence than at any other time in her life except for infancy. That requires a mountain of vitamins and minerals best found in food, as well as an average of 2,200 calories a day. But too often teenage girls don’t get enough of these crucial micronutrients. I urge all parents to supplement the diets of their teenage children with vitamins—a daily multiple as well as a green superfood such as spirulina, wheat grass, or barley grass now and again in a smoothie. Young girls are often deficient in major minerals of the body: magnesium for one, which mobilizes calcium into the bones.

Half a woman’s bone mass is formed during adolescence, and low intakes of calcium and magnesium today may lead to osteoporosis tomorrow. Good sources of calcium include plain yogurt, leafy green vegetables, tofu, soy products, and sprouted seeds. Magnesium sources include sesame seeds, raw shelled hemp seeds, raw cacao beans, grapes, avocados, bananas, blackstrap molasses, brown rice, kale, broccoli, Tuscan kale, savoy cabbage, chicory, romaine lettuce, arugula, watercress, dulse, kelp, millet, almonds, hazelnuts, and alfalfa sprouts.

Girls often don’t get enough iron. Not only do they lose iron through menstruation, but if their diet isn’t varied enough, they won’t get enough iron-rich foods. The risk of anemia is great.
One study found that even a mild iron deficiency resulted in lower test scores in math. Iron-rich foods include eggs, fish, poultry, almonds, figs, dulse, kelp, kombu, wakame, parsley, watercress, broccoli, Tuscan kale, quinoa, amaranth, oats, millet, rye, blackstrap molasses, prunes, and nettles.