Peer pressured into good nutrition
By Leona Millar, RD
Nutrition promotes good health and prevents heart disease and cancer. But try telling this to your kids. It could be your ticket to Geeky Parentville.
The teens at Renfrew County High Schools in the Ottawa Valley have tapped into the power of peer pressure to promote healthy eating. The Teen Cuisine program started nine years ago by the Renfrew County and District Health Unit Dietitians and this year received a national award for excellence in consumer nutrition education from the Dietitians of Canada and Kraft Canada.
Teen Cuisine involves a collaboration among students, caterers, teachers and public-health staff. The program's original objective was to market healthy food choices. Its success relies on teens talking to teens. In the past, a variety of creative promotional activities were used to address concerns teens have about nutrition, active living and body image. Information, in the form of contests, was posted on the back of washroom stall doors, and a campaign to promote a Bonne Best egg contest had students touring the school halls wearing sandwich boards and clucking like chickens.
The “caff staff” helps to create an environment that makes healthy foods easy by offering appealing choices. Techniques used to encourage students to select healthier choice are:
- favourable prices on milk and juices
- routine use of whole wheat bread for sandwiches
- increased proportion of nutritious foods on display
- predominant in-school posters and advertising were strictly for healthier food choices
- relevant point-of-sale nutrition messages
At Fellowes High School in Pembroke, Ont., regular French fries and a sub or other daily special replaced the ever-popular platter of poutine. This dropped the average sale of French fries from 180 to 60 pounds per day.
Teen Cuisine isn’t only about marketing better foods. Students learn about healthy lifestyles while acquiring marketing and computer skills. Caterers benefit from successful low-cost promotional ideas. School staff provides healthy lifestyle choices for students while meeting curriculum requirements, as well as reinforcing the efforts of health-conscious parents.
Teen Cuisine lets kids make their own food choices. Eating habits are not created or destroyed by one food, meal or even a day's meals. If parents have an understanding of what teenagers need to eat nutritiously, they can minimize food battles and more serious eating problems. The Canadian Guidelines for Healthy Eating from Health Canada are good starting points with the following:
• Encourage a variety of foods and preparation styles to make mealtimes more exciting. Eating a limited variety of foods everyday, even those packed with nutrients, won't necessarily achieve a diet of the more than 50 nutrients needed for growth and good health.
• Emphasize cereals, breads, rice, pasta, vegetables and fruits at each meal. They’re usually low in fat and high in starch, the body's largest requirement for energy.
• Choose lower-fat dairy products, leaner meats and foods prepared with little or no added fats. But know that children and teens require more fat than adults to ensure proper growth. The popularity of deep fried foods among young people makes it easy to overdo it.
• A healthy body weight can be achieved by encouraging regular physical activity and healthy eating. People who feel good about themselves will be more likely to practise healthy behaviours.
The principles of healthy eating for teens do not differ largely from adults. Caregivers should provide healthy food, practice what they preach and, most important, respect a teen's decision to eat how he or she wants.
Leona Millar is a registered dietitian at the Community Care Access Centre in Renfrew County, Ont., and a member of the Dietitians of Canada.
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