Healthy Eating for Teens
January 10, 2006 - In the Library
I felt that this topic would make a great teen program, because diet and body image are two things that teens are becoming more aware of. It is also easy to present this type of information in a fun, interactive way. It tied in nicely with New Year's Resolutions and January being Fit Lifestyle month.
I provided a variety of interesting an unique food that I pick out at a local health food grocery store. This included mangos, chard, 5 varieties of apples, almond butter, ginger salad dressing, blue potatoes, chard, free range chicken chili, oatmeal, nuts and seeds, two types of tea, and unsweetened cranberry and grape juice. The teens could sample most of these. They sampled the food first and then we talked about things like looking at the serving size on packages and reading the ingredients.
Next we talked about the new food pyramid from the United States Department of Agriculture. The new pyramid is available on their website and it is interactive. Teens can go to the site and put in their age, sex, and level of physical activity and see their customized daily calorie requirements and also how many cups/serving of grains, vegetables, fruits, dairy, meat and beans are recommended. The new food pyramid website is located at www.mypyramid.gov.
We talked about what they usually ate and exercised each day in a positive way. I encouraged the teens to get involved in helping with grocery shopping and preparing meals if they didn't already. Planning and cooking meals for their family is a great way for teens to be involved in what they eat rather than counting calories. I also showed a clip from the movie Supersize Me, as a way to bring in other library materials besides big old health books.
I should have planned an ice-breaker activity at the beginning of the program or some type of moving around in the middle. It was hard for some of the teens to sit still and not be silly. I had 6 teens, 5 guys and one girl.
The resources that I found most useful were:
www.mypyramid.gov
http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/label.html
http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource/content3/ific/ific.teen.trends.html
Books that I used to put together my presentation:
Lopez, Ralph, The Teen Health Book: A Parents' guide to Adolescent Health and Well-Being. 2002. ISBN 0393020460
Henner, Marilu. Healthy Kids: Help them eat smart and stay active for life. 2001. ISBN 0066211123.
This second book had a chapter on teens. It also had easy recipes and food themed games and activities like word searches and crossword puzzles.
Books that I recommended to the teens:
Rio, Linda and Tara. The Anorexia Diaries. 2003. ISBN:157954729.
There are many books on eating disorders, I really liked this one because it gives you both the mother and the daughters view in their diary entries.
Lipsyte, Robert. One Fat Summer. 1977. ISBN: 0060238968
Dessen, Sarah. Keeping the Moon. 1999. ISBN: 0670885495
I felt that this topic would make a great teen program, because diet and body image are two things that teens are becoming more aware of. It is also easy to present this type of information in a fun, interactive way. It tied in nicely with New Year's Resolutions and January being Fit Lifestyle month.
I provided a variety of interesting an unique food that I pick out at a local health food grocery store. This included mangos, chard, 5 varieties of apples, almond butter, ginger salad dressing, blue potatoes, chard, free range chicken chili, oatmeal, nuts and seeds, two types of tea, and unsweetened cranberry and grape juice. The teens could sample most of these. They sampled the food first and then we talked about things like looking at the serving size on packages and reading the ingredients.
Next we talked about the new food pyramid from the United States Department of Agriculture. The new pyramid is available on their website and it is interactive. Teens can go to the site and put in their age, sex, and level of physical activity and see their customized daily calorie requirements and also how many cups/serving of grains, vegetables, fruits, dairy, meat and beans are recommended. The new food pyramid website is located at www.mypyramid.gov.
We talked about what they usually ate and exercised each day in a positive way. I encouraged the teens to get involved in helping with grocery shopping and preparing meals if they didn't already. Planning and cooking meals for their family is a great way for teens to be involved in what they eat rather than counting calories. I also showed a clip from the movie Supersize Me, as a way to bring in other library materials besides big old health books.
I should have planned an ice-breaker activity at the beginning of the program or some type of moving around in the middle. It was hard for some of the teens to sit still and not be silly. I had 6 teens, 5 guys and one girl.
The resources that I found most useful were:
www.mypyramid.gov
http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/label.html
http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource/content3/ific/ific.teen.trends.html
Books that I used to put together my presentation:
Lopez, Ralph, The Teen Health Book: A Parents' guide to Adolescent Health and Well-Being. 2002. ISBN 0393020460
Henner, Marilu. Healthy Kids: Help them eat smart and stay active for life. 2001. ISBN 0066211123.
This second book had a chapter on teens. It also had easy recipes and food themed games and activities like word searches and crossword puzzles.
Books that I recommended to the teens:
Rio, Linda and Tara. The Anorexia Diaries. 2003. ISBN:157954729.
There are many books on eating disorders, I really liked this one because it gives you both the mother and the daughters view in their diary entries.
Lipsyte, Robert. One Fat Summer. 1977. ISBN: 0060238968
Dessen, Sarah. Keeping the Moon. 1999. ISBN: 0670885495
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