The transition of the teenage years takes a toll on many parents and teens alike. Sometimes the relationships between parents and teens are so strained that it becomes difficult to talk about even the simplest of subjects. However, it is important for parents to broach the subject of healthy eating, whether their teens like it or not. In high school, teenagers begin spending an increasing amount of time away from home and out of their parents’ sight. Unfortunately, a lot of the time, teens will go to a local fast food restaurant to meet up with their friends and bond over foods that are loaded down with fat, sugar, and calories. As you might have guessed, this can be bad news for their growing bodies.

In fact, a teenager’s need for iron and calcium actually increases as they enter the 13 to 19 age bracket. Especially when their bodies are going through puberty, teens require more of these two important nutrients to simply keep up with their bodies’ demands. This is especially true for teenage girls, many of whom are at an increased risk for iron and calcium deficiencies. However, parents should emphasize the need for iron-rich and calcium-rich foods to both their sons and daughters, as both play vital roles in the body’s daily functions. In fact, nutritional deficiencies during the teenage years have been linked to problems that occur later in life.

With the guidance of their parents, teens are capable of maintaining healthy diets on their own. In fact, it is important for parents to allow their teens to make some of their own dietary decisions. For most parents, their child’s teenage years are the last few that will be spent under the same roof, and it will be important for teens to be able to make choices for themselves once they are moved out of their childhood home. Perhaps one of the most basic ideas to emphasize is the importance of variety. It is easiest to meet diverse nutrient needs when choosing foods from all of the different food groups. Also, make sure that your child knows that while taking a daily multivitamin can be a useful supplement to a well-balanced diet, it should never be used as the sole source of a nutrient. Educating your teen on healthy eating habits now will continue to benefit them throughout their adult years.

Finally, encourage them to eat healthy snacks, even when you’re not around, by emphasizing the healthful qualities of YoNaturals vending machine snacks. A few simple acts now and you’ll be setting them on the path to maintaining good health and nutrition for their entire lifetime.

Even though many parents realize that childhood obesity is a serious medical condition and a risk to a child’s health and longevity, they fail to recognize the problem when it presents itself in their own offspring. In a recent poll of 2600 Americans (approximately 2/3 of which were parents), researchers discovered a “stark mismatch” between a child’s weight problem and a parent’s ability to recognize it.

In the poll, parents were asked to report the height and weight of their oldest child so that researchers could calculate their child’s body mass index (BMI). In order to meet the threshold of being considered obese, the child had to have a BMI that fell in the 95 to 100 percentile range for their age and gender. Children were classified as overweight if they fell into the 85 to 94 percentile range. On these grounds, the scientists discovered that a full quarter of the children aged 6 to 17 could be classified as overweight or obese as defined by the parameters of the study.

When questioned, many parents did were not able to recognize the fact that their own child had a weight problem, although the parents of teenagers were more likely to do so than the parents of adolescents and preteens. Despite this finding, 84% of parents also indicated that they want their child’s physician to address the issue of obesity during their regular checkups. This would indicate that most parents are at least somewhat open to receiving more advice and guidance on helping their child eat better and become more physically fit.

As with most things in life, the first step to resolving a problem is recognizing that you have one. Although educational organizations are undertaking measures to cut back on the availability of sugary drinks and fat-filled junk foods in the public school systems, it is also critical for a parent to be aware of their child’s weight issues and be able to address them at home too.

In order to do this, parents will have to become better acquainted with what is considered an appropriate (read: healthy) weight for their child’s height and gender.
After recognizing the problem, the next step is to take action to correct it. Both the CDC and the USDA can be useful resources when seeking more information about childhood obesity in the United States, but also ask questions of your child’s physician. Few people will be more in tune to your child’s special health requirements than you and your child’s doctor. Finally, start encouraging better eating habits for your entire family by choosing healthier snacks to fill their tummies. By simply opting for snacks from YoNaturals vending machines, you will demonstrate that you not only recognize the problem, but you also recognize the solution.