Should teenagers ever diet

Being a teen in this day and age can be extremely difficult. Teens not only have to cope with study commitments, body and hormonal changes, social, family issues, but also the added pressure to fit in. It’s a lot to cope with for the average adult let alone someone who has not fully matured yet. Naturally teen are fairly self conscious with their new and every changing bodies. With maturity, a person can grow into their skin and let’s face it even many adults still get very self-conscious about their bodies. These days, teens are faced with social pressures to fit in as well as a constant media bombardment of unrealistic images. It’s no wonder teenagers are dieting and seeking various other methods to lose weight.




So the question needs to be asked ‘Should Teenagers ever diet’?

The first thing to consider is that teenagers are not fully developed yet. Teenagers are still growing so their nutrient requirements are different to adults. In fact the recommended daily intake for many nutrients is actually increased. Most diets often restrict certain food groups. While this is not ideal for anyone it can be a concern during periods of growth. Diets that restrict calcium for instance, can be a concern for a teenager to follow. Rapid bone growth occurs between 12 – 17 years and peak bone mass occurs between ages 16 -25. This means that the development of healthy bones at this age is critical for later in life and a restricted intake of calcium in the teenage years could lead osteoporosis later in life even if calcium intake was increased after this time 1.

Another worrying aspect about teens going on a diet is the psychological aspect of dieting. A diet can sometimes even quickly snowball into becoming an eating disorder, particularly with the added social pressure during teenage years. Teenage girls are very susceptible to this, but eating disorders are not exclusive to girls a larger number of boys are also developing this condition as well.

So letting a teenager follow a diet is not ideal but there is of course our growing obesity epidemic among the youth population, and is it any wonder with the tuck shop lunches and popular fast food hang outs.


If you have an overweight teenager should they be put on a diet?

It is probably not ideal for teenagers to do a typical diet in terms of restricting calories but rather change habits to develop long term healthy eating choices instead.  By changing a teen’s diet to a include a balanced intake of food with adequate lean protein, complex carbohydrates, healthy fats and not restricting vitamins and minerals this will naturally cause a shift in their weight to a healthy range without the risk of long term damage.

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Why diets often fail

Going on a diet is a fairly common thing to do in order to lose weight however successful weight loss is not quite as common, there is quite a high failure rate. There are many different reasons why successful weight loss might not occur. Why is this? And is it the diets that are the problem or is it other factors?




The problem with a lot of diets is while they tell you what food you need to eat and not eat to lose weight they fail you provide the essential tools to stick with the diet. Doing a diet or making a dietary change is not easy, let’s face it, it’s the easy and indulgent lifestyle we enjoy so much e that gets us in to trouble in the first place! So with this in mind many people struggle to stick to diets because they can be quite challenging and restrictive. If a diet doesn’t show you how to balance restrictions with normal day to day life, then working this out on your own can be a set up for failure.

Two more key tools for weight loss are motivation and organization. Often diets fail not due to the diet itself but by the person on it losing their motivation, particularly when things get too difficult. Motivation tends to come from within, but falling off the wagon because you weren’t organized and got caught with an unhealthy food option can be disheartening and de-motivating. This is where being organised comes in, but sadly more often than not weight loss diets don’t show you this.

It not all just about the food!

While a diet can be a solution for weight management it also needs to be considered that there is an emotional and mental side of weight loss. If a person has emotional eating patterns, simply trying various diets will not solve the underlying problem which needs to be addressed.

A variety of different medical conditions can also affect success on a weight loss program. Slower weight loss due to conditions such as an underactive thyroid can become disheartening causing people to give up too soon before achieving their goal.
So while there are good and bad diets out there failure may not always be because of the diet but rather it is failing to provide adequate back up to support you along the weight loss path.

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Perfect Portions

Food coach Judy Davie shows us the size and ratios of a healthy dinner.

Super-sized meals might seem like value for money but there is no value in eating so much that you gain weight and increase the risk of many weight-related diseases.

Have a look at what a well-portioned evening meal looks like to see if you are super-sizing your meals or eating too much meat.

Vegetables

Vegetables take up more than half the space on the plate but only represent 20 per cent of the kilojoules of the meat and potatoes combined. For the greatest number of nutrients it's best to eat a selection of multi-coloured vegetables, and because they are low in energy, you can afford to eat a lot of them.

Snow peas, zucchini and asparagus = 171kJ
Capsicum and carrot = 60kJ
Pumpkin and squash = 150kJ


Protein

A 120g piece of meat, approximately the size of the palm of your hand or a deck of cards, is enough to give you a feeling of satiety and provide a range of nutrients including iron and zinc. If it hangs over the edge of the plate it's far too big.

120g lean steak = 885kJ


Carbohydrate

We all like our carbohydrates but most of us eat too much. Three small potatoes or a serve of rice or pasta that takes up the same amount of space on the plate as the protein serve is sufficient.

3 small potatoes = 902kJ

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Eat your way to a flat tummy

If you suffer from bloating and indigestion, a new diet may hold the key to a flatter stomach.

A new diet looks set to provide relief from bloating for the one in five people who suffer from Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). The low-FODMAP plan works by eliminating certain sugars from the diet and boasts a success rate of 70 per cent among those already following it. The beauty of the diet is that it is not as restrictive as other elimination diets and is therefore easier to adhere to, increasing the chance of long-term success for dieters.

What are FODMAPS?

FODMAPS are sugars found in certain foods which can cause symptoms of IBS in some people and stands for fermentable oligosaccharides (fructans and raffinose), disaccharides (lactose), monosaccharides (fructose) and polyols (sugar alcohol such as sorbitol, maltitol and xylitol). They were identified by dietician Dr Sue Shepherd, who has recently published a book on the topic along with gastroenterologist Dr Peter Gibson called The Food Intolerance Management Plan (Penguin, $35).

Common FODMAP foods include wheat-based products; certain fruit and vegetables including stone fruit and vegies such as onions, garlic and cabbage; honey and sugar substitutes; and legumes (see below for a full list).

According to Dr Shepherd, there are three reasons why FODMAPS cause symptoms of IBS: they are poorly absorbed in the small bowel; they are small molecules, consumed in a concentrated dose; and they are "fast food" for the bacteria that live naturally in the large bowel.

Common high-FODMAP foods include:

Fruit: apples, blackberries, cherries, mango, nectarines, peach, pear and watermelon
Vegetables: artichoke, asparagus, beetroot, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, garlic, mushrooms, onions
Beans and pulses, such as baked beans, lentils and chickpeas
Wheat-based products including bread, pasta, cereals, noodles and biscuits
Dairy products including milk, yoghurt, ice-cream and soft cheeses
Honey and high-fructose corn syrup
Fruit juices, pastes and sauces
Coconut milk and cream
Sugar substitutes (with names ending in "ol" such as xylitol)
Coffee substitutes
Sweet wines
Who would benefit from a low-FODMAP diet?

The low-FODMAP diet is designed to help people suffering from food intolerances that lead to IBS and has been proven to work in the treatment of IBS symptoms in both the long term and short term.

If you have been diagnosed with IBS or have experienced bloating, discomfort or a change in your bowel habits and would like to try the low-FODMAP diet, your first step is to contact an experienced and qualified dietician for advice. You can also get a breath hydrogen test to check whether you have fructose or lactose intolerance, or both, which will help you identify which FODMAPs you should be avoiding.

A typical low-FODMAP menu plan

Breakfast options: wheat-free cereal with 'lite' milk; poached eggs with wheat-free bread
Lunch options: Rice cakes with ham, cheese, lettuce and tomato; roast vegetable salad
Dinner options: Lamb and sweet potato curry; tomato chicken risotto; Chinese chicken on fried wild rice
Snack options: Yoghurt, popcorn, mixed nuts, rice crackers with a slice of hard cheese
General dietary guidelines

As well as avoiding FODMAPs, there are a few other rules you can follow to help reduce the severity of IBS symptoms.

Firstly, avoid overeating, and enjoy your meals by savouring them and eating slowly.
Avoiding excessive intake of fats, caffeine and alcohol is also important.
Avoid stress-filled meals – don't work or have difficult discussions when you're eating.
And lastly, don't skip meals. Eat regularly and always have a good breakfast.

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