Healthy Eating for Average Teenagers: The Importance of An Average Teens’ Healthy Diet

The following blog contains information on nutrition focusing on an average teenager. For a growing teenager nutrition is a very essential part of maintaining a healthy life.

One of the ways nutrition affects teenagers is that teens need the right types and amount of nutrients to support their growing bodies. The teen years are when the most growth occurs throughout a humans' entire life. It is important to take food choice and amount into consideration in order to get the correct nutrients, because without them teenagers' may not have the appropriate building materials to develop and grow their bodies. If teens' were to miss out on growth and development during their "prime" years then they may never be able to make up for that missed growth. An example of the point above is the vitamin calcium; bones develop quickly during teen years (nearly half of your bones are formed during these years,) and calcium is what is needed to make bones. Eating calcium during teen years will also help to prevent from bone fractures later in your life because calcium makes bones strong and healthy and your body cannot take in as much calcium after your teenage years. Another example is protein, without eating enough protein during teen years (the prime time for growing muscles) you won’t be able to repair and grow your muscles during the present and it is harder to make up for this missed opportunity as you get older.


A Picture of Rickets

Another reason why nutrition is important for teenagers is the food choices they make now will affect their eating habits as well as their health status later on in life. Adults often pick up on nutrition habits that they acquire during their teenage years, whether the habits are good or bad. Also nutrition affects peoples' health in later years because if you do not eat a certain amount of a nutrient you may acquire a deficiency or an excessive amount of that nutrient which can affect your development, your health now and your health in the future. An example of this is vitamin D. With out enough Vitamin D an adolescents body cannot take in calcium and can develop a condition called rickets which will cause the softening of bones in later years. A more common example of this would be something like acquiring too much fat and then suffering from heart diseases later in life.

Finally a third reason why nutrition is essential for a teenager is like that of any other human; to provide the right amount of calories to meet energy needs. Humans get their energy from the calories in the foods that they ingest. If too many calories are consumed then a person may become overweight, or obese. When a person suffers from becoming overweight then it strengthens their chances of heart disease and stroke. On the other hand if a person were to eat too little calories the consequences could be severe as well. It is possible that the person would not be able to carry on their daily activities and be a victim of constant fainting. If you eat near the right amount of calories for you then the benefits are vast, you can think clearly, move around, perform your daily activities and much more!