High School Nutrition (14-18 years)

HIGH SCHOOL NUTRITION

Section Overview

This section describes the daily recommendations for 14- to 18-year-old adolescents as well as tips to create healthy habits for teens.

Nutrition Recommendations for High Schoolers

High school age children (ages 14-18) are continuing to grow and develop and have unique needs as they continue to develop their eating behaviors. Teenagers balance a lot on their plates between school, friends, thinking about college, and maybe even an after-school job. It is important for them to make the best choices when it comes to nutrition and building healthy habits to keep up with their busy schedules and ensure future success!

Tips for Creating Healthy Habits

Although your teens get to choose how much they want to eat, it is your responsibility to teach and encourage them to choose the most nourishing foods for their bodies.

  • Get moving — Whether it’s playing a favorite sport, doing chores, biking, walking or even dancing, regular physical activity can help teens maintain a healthy weight and build strong muscles & bones.
    • Teens should aim for 60 minutes of physical activity per day!
  • Avoid skipping meals — Skipping meals or fasting can lead to unhealthy habits and overeating.
  • Limit foods with added sugars — Added sugars lead to extra calories that you don’t need. Sugary drinks can be a large source of added sugars for teens.
    • Choose water instead of soda, sweet teas, energy drinks or sports drinks!
  • Snack smart — Snacks can make up a large source of your nutrient intake. Instead of cookies, chips or candies – try snacks that are filling and full of nutrients such as fruit with peanut butter or veggies with hummus

Create S.M.A.R.T. Goals

Goal setting is an important aspect of developing good health habits. S.M.A.R.T. is an acronym you can use when setting goals to ensure that they are clear and achievable.

S.M.A.R.T. Goals are Specific, Measurable, Action-oriented, Realistic, and Timely.

  • Example of a good S.M.A.R.T. Goal:
    • I will eat a balanced breakfast (at least 3 food groups) at least 3 times per week.
      • This goal is specific to breakfast and following the food groups, it can be measured in days per week, it is action-oriented as the action stated is eating breakfast, it is realistic because it’s a minimum of 3 days per week, and it’s timely because the goal can be evaluated at the end of each week to see if it was met or not.
  • Example of a bad S.M.A.R.T. Goal:
    • I will begin to eat breakfast more.
      • This goal doesn’t provide enough detail to be considered a S.M.A.R.T. goal.