Is Your Teen Dieting?

Your often hear-say that my child is dieting. They either skip a meal like breakfast or dinner or eliminate a food group completely from a diet like rice, chapati or follow a vegetable or fruit day just to balance their calories without knowing the importance of balanced diet. This is called fad dieting and the consequences are endless as they age.

While majority teens are seen dieting for shedding weight but others may be to improve their skin health or for other beauty reasons, which are quite common in this phase of life. Visualizing these?

Yes, you can't deny the facts. As parents, teens are to be educated and self awareness about healthy eating should be encouraged without letting them go their way. Doing so, the results are short-term and can have huge impact in their overhealth, leading to nutritional deficiencies.

Diets those are dangerous –

Some types of diets dangerous diets are called “Fad diets” such as Atkins diet, Raw food diet, etc. Fad Diets that don't include a variety of nutritious foods, or have too few calories, can be dangerous for kids. These types of diet usually promise quick weight loss and require one to follow strict guidelines. Such diets affect the kid’s growth and development tremendously. The fall out can be the deficiency of many micronutrients. The truth is there are no quick fix foods when it comes to weight loss. Hence, pills, special drinks, all-liquid diets, and other gimmicks are wrong choices, especially for kids.

What should the kids eat while dieting?

Unlike adults, kids are still growing and developing. During this time, kids need a variety of healthy foods to keep their body function and system growing properly. Kids can try to eat a variety of healthy foods. A balanced diet means that you don't eat the same thing every day and that you eat a mix of foods from different food groups. These include a combination of the below

1. Eat 3 regular meals in right portions - 3 times a day

2. Eat good quality proteins like curds, milk and milk products, dals, lentils, nuts and eggs and meat.

3. Don't skip the essential fats like nuts and ghee

4. Keep the rainbow platter alive with coloured fruits and veggies.

The water and fiber is all that your child needs to keep them going all healthy. The portion of proteins and fats depend on the activities and age of your child. Not all kids are same.

Kids’ diet ultimately have a lot of choices that also depends on the type of activity and lifestyle habits. Activity may include play, sports, aerobics and dance.

Some tips to keep their weight in check:

1. Include a good serving of fruits and vegetables

2. Add a stash of nuts to their diet to prevent from junk food cravings

3. Add raw vegetables before starting a major meal who avoid any extra servings

4. Dairy produce like milk, paneer should be consumed daily as this has proven to aid weight loss. Also prolong the lifestyle disorders like diabetes, hypertension.

5. Keep fried foods, sweets and sugars out of daily diet and include only 1-2 times a week.

Children should be encouraged to play for 1 hour daily that can be cycling, sports etc or any kind of outdoor casual games like skipping, running, hopping. Screen time and gadget time should be reduced to an hour daily to improve both physical and emotional well-being!

Speak to a qualified dietitian if your child is recommended to lose weight who can help in calorie distribution and keeping all the macro and micronutrients in check.

A balanced, healthy diet with an hour of exercise daily is just right for your child!

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