As Your Teen's Body Changes, So Should His Diet

Most parents expect their role to change as their kids hit their teen years. But many don't realize quite how much their children's age affects the way they need to be fed.

Countless wonderful transformations occur inside the bodies of tweens and teens, and many directly affect the way they eat or relate to food. After infancy, adolescence is the second most critical time for nutritious eating. So some rethinking is in order.

What's changing?

• Hormone surges can make them moody, trigger sugar cravings and cause skin breakouts.

• During major growth spurts, kids have increased caloric requirements and may seem insatiable.

• Sports, extracurricular activities and homework schedules make it harder for them to sit down for a regularly scheduled family meal.

• Sleep patterns change; if kids wake up later, they may not be hungry for breakfast before school.

• Teens and tweens spend more time away from home, which means they eat more of their meals and snacks with peers.

• Kids this age are - appropriately - in the process of separating from their parents. Some may wage food wars: complaining about foods they used to eat happily, demanding junk food just to be contrary or adopting a specific diet (Paleo, vegetarian) that's different from the rest of the family's.

Absolutely all of this is happening in our house, along with the fact that my boys watch a lot of sports and are unquestionably lured by the sports drinks, protein powders and muscle-building products advertised. My smoothies and homemade granola bars no longer cut it.

These adolescent changes are normal, yet this doesn't mean we parents should abandon our noble intentions to feed our kids well.

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