However, the health status of these teens is not often monitored and their living habits of food and drink are taken for granted. But now we know that their food habits, eating behavior, and their erratic lifestyle track and are carried to early adulthood and inevitably determine their future health.

Adolescence is more precisely defined as the period from puberty to maturity or typically described as the age between 10 to 19 years.

However, there are many individual variations in the timing and tempo of maturation.

Adolescence is distinct and is a unique stage in the life cycle of man, both biologically and psychosocially. There are many unknown factors impacting their health like smoking or drugs, etc.

Being a transition phase – it is a unique period of self discovery, emerging independence, new found freedom and as such has become a challenge to their immediate family.

You have heard complaints from parents of teens being stubborn, unruly, disrespectful, and disobedient, no sense of morality, or family ties and more.

The following are the common eating trends among adolescents:

1. Breakfast skippers
2. Overeating or Under eating certain foods
3. Fast foods are their favorites
4. Peers’ eating practices are copied whether good or bad
5. Fad diets and celebrity eating practices are followed
6. Late and big snacking is becoming a calorie problem
7. Excessive intake of sodas, sweetened juices or bottomless iced tea, alcoholic drinks and gourmet coffee is a common practice to them
8. Inadequate intake of fresh fruits, vegetables, seafood and fiber rich foods
9. No sustained water habit or milk drinking except ice cream
10. Family meal times are neglected in favor of T.V. or video games

LET’S LEAD AND TEACH BY EXAMPLE

It’s a universal challenge to us who have teenage sons and daughters to be role models. We simply have to practice what we preach. Little success makes for big results. Improving our guiding abilities and suppressing our instinct to correct and dictate is truly a task to practice. Let’s emphasize health at every size, not weight centered or focused on body shape or form. Draw them to a healthier active outdoor life.

BEING HEALTHY TAKES LESS TIME THAN YOU THINK.

If not having enough time is your biggest barrier to being healthy, you are not alone. With today’s hectic lifestyles, many parents feel the same way. Rest assured, it’s OK to take one step at a time. Here are a few tips that might actually help you save time:

• Map out a week of healthful meals and snacks so you can stock up on what you need with one trip to the store.
• Use supermarket time-savers such as rotisserie chicken, quick-cooking brown rice, pre-washed salad greens and canned or frozen fruits and vegetables.
• Ask kids to help you plan their school lunches and family dinners for the week and make the shopping list.
• Enlist their help with meal preparation. Even younger kids can do simple tasks such as tearing lettuce for a salad or spooning yogurt on top of fruit for dessert.

One of the most important skills you can “model” for your kids is how to maintain a healthy weight by balancing calories in the food you eat with the calories you burn through physical activity done regularly with them if possible.