All it needs to be a healthy teenager

Tripti Gupta is a leading lifestyle nutrition consultant who advises natural, practical and healthy living. Her smart eating techniques, easy to follow routine and expert personalised monitoring are what make her result oriented services popular.

Tripti talks about today’s teenage nutrition and says teenagers these days are confused. “Confusion is the word here. Today’s teenagers have excessive exposure, information all over Google and availability of almost every junk and processed food.

So, the biggest reason for early obesity and hormonal imbalance on young adolescents today is too much of everything and not being sure of where and what to stop. A consolidated nutrition training programme in every school and college is the need of the hour here, where formal education should be given to children on health and nutrition to create awareness in the right direction at the right time in their growing years.”

She believes that teenage is the age of speed today; when the adults too, lead a fast paced lifestyle and the teens are a step ahead here. “They want convenience and rapid results for their ideal, idol like and idle bodies. Whether it comes to eating fast food or dieting aggressively, teenagers are missing the main key in their chain to maintaining nutrition, which is balance.

Food fads, junk food availability, looking cool with protein bars in their hand rather than carrying tiffin or homemade chikki has become a fashion,” Tripti shares. On the other hand she says there is limited awareness too; food supplements, whey shakes and processed foods are heavily advertised and now easily available.

These are largely consumed by teenagers with the aim of looking like their favourite actor/star without realising what and how much is their need. Hence, the biggest challenge is to strike the right balance between need and availability. Looking cool, eating natural and choosing available healthy options in public have become a bigger challenge to juggle with today for a teenager.

Maintaining healthy eating
“Healthy eating in India, is far easier than any other part of the world, where we have all kinds’ healthy options available. Outside almost every college we have a sandwich-wala, dosa-wala, coconut water guy, fruit juice, fruit chaat, etc available. Long hours of college followed by projects etc may become a challenge to carry too many options from home but there is still no reason to binge on a pack of chips.

Fruits, roasted chana, puffed rice, diet khakra, whole cucumbers, nuts, etc are other options they can pick up from any store. Healthy eating can be maintained by choosing such natural unprocessed options at small intervals throughout the day backed up with sufficient hydration. Avoid overeating to remain active and keep your movement through the day to prevent sluggishness and backaches.”

As a growing teenager every nutrient is extremely essential hence it’s important not to omit any food group, she says, “Besides, omega 3, vitamin D and folic acid are extremely essential for maintain the delicate hormonal balance teenagers are growing up with. Consuming nuts, oilseeds, dark green leafy vegetables, fish, etc are some of the examples. Omega3 also helps keep the brain active and improve focus, memory as well concentration power they require.”

A few words for parents
“Know your child and his food preferences first, identify his peak time of hunger and cheat meals and help them mimic with healthier options at the same time. Telling your child what is healthy is one thing, making them follow and adapt to it is completely a separate skill. Don’t try to feed them oats at a time they guzzle on a cola.

Instead, replace it with simulation; exchange their cola with a fruit juice and gradually a homemade lime juice/ buttermilk. Replace child’s chocolate pancakes with honey dosa, exchange candies with fresh fruit salad or fruit kebabs. Above all ensure the family eats and stocks healthy options at home too.

You can’t be eating fries and ask your teenager to eat carrots instead. Practice what you preach should be your first step here.” “The mind of most adolescents is naturally attracted to everything that looks good, whether it’s a well-packaged chocolate bar, the pic of fab physique advertising for a cola drink or their favourite star munching some chocolate cookies.

Also the extremely digital savvy teenagers today tend to choose the ways of the so called trendy and cool “west”, which shouts processed. Hence, the greatest health risks they face today are childhood obesity, diabetes; high cholesterol levels, premature greying of hair, low vitamin levels and poor memory power. In most adolescent girls, early menstruation cycle and early puberty also stem from unhealthy eating habit from early ages,” Tripti informs.

Tripti states that emotional health is also important for a teenage kid. “Anxiety, depression, shame, tease, poor self esteem, trauma, inferiority complexes, insecurities, jealousy, comparisons and abuse are some of the most common issues, which teenagers face today, with growing divorce cases, broken and abusive families, etc there is a lot more for the teenager to juggle with rather than concentrating on good nutrition.

Food is often chosen as the route to escape, satiate, punish or gift oneself with. Most emotional disorders naturally culminate into eating disorders; hence emotional health plays a critical role in teenagers to achieve good health,” says Tripti.

Tips for a healthy eating and active living
Ensuring at least 6 small natural healthy meals + 2 fruits +1 cup of skim milk + 3 litres of water a day can easily do the trick for any teenager. This would not only keep them satisfied but also help them refrain from choosing junk, prevent lack of energy, boost their concentration power and keep them active.

It is known that processed foods cause lethargy, sluggish metabolism, weight gain, constipation and lack of focus. These are exactly what the teenagers face today. For an active lifestyle as a teenager besides being part of a favourite active sport such as swimming, dance, tennis, etc they also need to be active throughout the day.

Their bodies are meant to stay active at this age. Taking the stairs instead of the lift, walking down to the supermarket instead of taking a cab or simply cleaning up the room are the biggest reasons that differentiate an athletic body of teenager from a chubby one.

By: Askari Jaffer