A Healthy Meal
According to experts breakfast is the most important meal of the day. American families tend to eat a big meal at dinner time. This has become a wrong practice since the metabolism of the body is much slower in the evening and is less active in digesting foods. This is the reason why most of Americans are suffering from hyperlipidemia. Since the body is not active during night time energy in the food will be stored and converted into unwanted fat. Also the body will not be able to absorb many nutrients from the meal during this time. Eating a large meal, late in the day will make the body feel tired.
A healthy meal includes breakfast with normal sized meal, a huge meal for lunch, and a half meals for dinner or a four to six small meal divided over the day. It will keep the body on the go without throwing a huge quantity of food into the stomach which might give the digestive system, a hard time to digest. There are some who skip breakfast because they don’t feel eating in the morning. Study shows that person who skips breakfast is much fatter than those who eat the full meal breakfast. When a person doesn’t eat breakfast there is a tendency that this person will overeat during lunch time. Skipping breakfast will make the body think that he is starving. To help a person eat a healthy meal try to make eating as fun as possible. A person could do this by eating with friends, family and co-employees. By having fun while eating a person will eat slowly and therefore giving time for the body to feel full before eating another bite.
Parents’ Guide for Teen Nutrition
Adolescence is the stage of life wherein one starts to engage in a lot of activities. Going out with friends, joining clubs, going in to sports, school works, and other activities fill their day to day schedule.
It is also the time where they show rapid body development. Thus, more attention should be put on their diet and eating habits.
Unlike toddlers, you can’t ask teenagers to bring lunch box in school while their friends and schoolmates are eating out at a restaurants or fast foods.
A possible solution for this dilemma is by teaching them how to eat healthy. This doesn’t mean that they have to give up their favorite foods. It’s just being smart in making your food selections.
You can start by cutting the serving sizes. Instead of giving them a bag of chips, serve it in smaller bowl. At the same time you can add some more nutritious alternative like fruits or whole-wheat bread.
Acknowledge that teens will go to fast foods, but you can encourage them to go for smaller size meals or have them share a super-sized meal with friends.
Be a role model. You must exhibit good eating habits and healthy lifestyle. Serve nutritious food at home.
Teach them the importance of label reading. Emphasize the nutrients that are needed for their development.
Remind them to always eat on time. Skipping meals may help them lose weight but it also means that they are not getting anything especially the nutrients that they need to get through every day.