Teenagers Food Pyramid

Teenagers' food pyramid is a guide to help teens make healthy food choices every day.

Teenagers face some special challenges when it comes to making healthy diet choices. Often on the go with extracurricular activities, a job, and social activities, it's not uncommon for teens to eat on the run. Unfortunately, what's generally available "on the run" is not the healthiest food. The food pyramid can help by giving guidance and encouragement towards healthy eating habits.

In 2005, the US government released an updated pyramid. Not only does the new pyramid show a focus on exercise in combination with healthy eating, but it also shows that you can eat some things in moderation.

With the launching of a new pyramid, the government also put together an informative website that has interactive tools to help plan a teen's diet. The new tools take into account a person's height, weight and overall amount of physical activity on a daily basis. While the food pyramid is not a weight loss program, it can be informative.

As in the old pyramid, food falls into five groups:

• Grains
• Fruits
• Vegetables
• Milk and other dairy
• Meat and beans (or other protein)

When possible, teens are encouraged to choose whole grains in lieu of starches like white bread or white rice. Whole-wheat pasta, whole wheat bread, and brown rice are much healthier.

Teens are encouraged to eat a variety of fruits every day. However, remember that fruits also have a lot of sugar.

For snacks on the go, try carrot and celery sticks. Essentially, teens should be eating several cups of vegetables per day. A great way to think of this is to eat two different colored vegetables for both lunch and dinner.

Since obesity is such an epidemic in the United States, the new food pyramid guides teens towards eating lean proteins in moderation. When taken as a whole, the bulk of a teen's diet should be fruits and vegetables as opposed to meat. This is a switch from the typical American teenage diet.

While a food pyramid designed specifically for teenagers is great, it is hard to remember how many cups of this or that you should have. However, teens can keep some general rules in mind when making choices regarding their diet.

Teens should eat whenever they are hungry. However, they should not eat whatever they want. An occasional indulgence in some fries or a milkshake never made anyone obese, but regularly choosing fat and sugar laden food will have consequences down the road. Instead, teens can eat whenever they want but should choose to nibble on raw veggies and dip, or fruit.

Teens can enjoy a variety of activities from a pickup game of basketball with friends, to regular walking or joining a school sports' team. The trick is to stay active and exercise at least an average of 30 minutes per day.

To get a customized teenagers' food pyramid guide, you can visit My Pyramid, an interactive site to help people explore the newer food pyramid guidelines. Teenagers can simply input their age, height, and weight and the site will give them a listing of nutritional goals for their specific parameters.

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