Make TBO Your Home Page| Subscribe To The Paper| Advertise With Us| Contact Us| Login| Edit Profile| Register
Health
Email
Print
Work healthy treats into your teen's diet
Special to TBO.com
It's OK for kids to indulge this Halloween season, as long as they make smart choices the rest of the year.
ADVERTISEMENT
Published: October 28, 2009
Updated: 10/30/2009 12:23 pm
Related Links
It's Halloween, the unofficial national day of candy consumption.
In just a few hours, your little darlings will be coming home with their haul of Lemonheads, Sour Skittles and Kit Kat Bars. And you will once again bemoan the junk and its power to destroy kids' appetite for anything remotely healthful.
But don't get scared off by this nutritional nightmare that comes around once a year. Get a little perspective and realize that it's the eating habits the rest of the year on which you need to focus.
"If we only had to worry about splurging once every few months, that would make such a difference," says Laurel Hudson, a culinary nutritionist with Wellspring Academy, a weight-loss boarding school and camp for overweight teens.
She suggests portioning Halloween candy into bags of two or three pieces. "Enjoying a little bit of indulgence every day is better than having a big bowl of candy sitting on the table," she says.
Hudson says the bigger hurdle is getting teens to choose healthful foods over sweets and empty calories in soda and junk food. She says she teaches teens and their families to choose healthy, low-fat, low-calorie foods without a complete deprivation of treats.
A recent state assessment of fruit and vegetable consumption suggests that many American teens face the daily food choice conflict. It found that just 10 percent of American high school students — and 14 percent of adults — say they eat the recommended daily amount of fruits and vegetables.
These results fall well short of the government's 2010 goal to get 75 percent of Americans eating two or more servings of fruit a day, and 50 percent eating three or more servings of vegetables a day.
The 100,000 high school students surveyed in 2007 were asked, essentially, how many times a day they ate fruit or vegetables. Fruit juice counted, but pieces of fruit are considered preferable because they're more filling alternatives to fatty, processed snacks, says Heidi Blanck, a scientist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Fruits are clearly more popular: About one in three students said they ate two or more servings of fruit each day. Vegetables are a bigger struggle. Only 13 percent of U.S. high school students get at least three servings of vegetables a day. Combined, less than one out of 10 teens gets enough of both of these foods containing essential vitamins, minerals, fiber and nutrients.
The report also offers a sliver of good news. Teens in Florida ate better than most of their peers in the rest of the country, according to the survey of 38 states. Only Connecticut, New Hampshire and Vermont were better overall than the Sunshine State.
Hudson says that's likely because of the state's year-round availability of fresh produce in supermarkets and restaurants.
Fruits and vegetables are low-fat, low-calorie food choices. They often are cited for their role in reducing the risk of chronic diseases such as stroke, type 2 diabetes and some cancers.
The most recent national data available show that the percentage of children who are overweight and obesity is significant: 18.8 percent of children ages 2 to 5, 13.9 percent of those ages 6 to 11, and 17.4 percent of teens ages 12 to 19.
Hudson says increasing the amount of fruits and vegetables in the diet will do far more good than the bad that comes from a few sweets. Vegetables can be blended into other foods to make reaching the goal easier, she says.
"Everywhere you can get in more vegetables is a start," she says.
Florida teens do better
Teens in Florida consume more fruits and vegetables than their peers in other parts of the country, according to a state survey of eating behaviors. Adults, both in and out of state, are better but still fall short of the 2010 national guidelines for healthy fruit and vegetable consumption.
Teens: Florida, U.S.
Fruits: 32.7 percent, 32.2 percent
Veggies: 14.9 percent, 13.2 percent
Both fruits and veggies: 10.9 percent, 9.5 percent
Health and Human Services, State Indicator Report on Fruits and Vegetables 2009
Granules of truth
Want to minimize the sugar damage from trick or treating? Heidi Skolnik, a nutrition consultant for the Florida Department of Citrus, offers the following:
Eat healthy food ahead of time. Avoid excess sugar during the day, and eat a nutrient-rich meal before heading out for the night.
Set limits in advance. Indulging is fine once in a while, but decide ahead of time how many pieces of candy kids can enjoy that night. Pack up the rest for later, or donate to a charity or another group.
Brush up. Don't leave the extra sugar from candy on a child's teeth. Do a yeoman's job of flossing and brushing tonight.
Look for non-food options. Pay attention if there are toys, temporary tattoos or other safe play options available at your party or at houses you visit. It makes the night fun — and introduces less sugar into your home.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this story.
Email
Print
TBO.com - Tampa Bay Online ©2009 Media General Communications Holdings, LLC. A Media General company. Member Agreement | Privacy Statement | Work With Us
