Teen Agers and Eating Right

At least once a week I read in the newspaper or even a magazine how nutritionist or psychologist are training pre-teens and teens in school how to eat better so as to not be one of the 38% of children that are overweight. Then, because I live very close to a high school I see kids do as they want. The places that are the busiest during lunch is the pizza parlor, the convenience store, the Mexican fast food place and now the ice cream truck with a line of 20 deep. At this age nothing is worst than not fitting in. Peer acceptance is what drives most teens.
It is almost as if the nutritionist and the psychologists forgot what it was like when they were a teenager. That their “new way” of teaching ‘children’ is going to work. Good grief ! Telling teens that they should not be eating in fast food restaurants, is like telling them not to breathe! Then you have the peer problem.

Rather than teaching them the ‘new way’, which is no different from the old way, wouldn’t it be better to observe them, then teach to their needs and life style; giving them a few secrets on how to eat, not get fat, still fit into their peer group and not get teased by others?

The biggest problem these ‘teachers’ have is they never had the problem of gaining weight or losing weight. Or they have the problem of being overweight while teaching and the teens blow them off immediately. Teens are not stupid maybe just a little ill-advised, and when presented with options they can use in everyday life, they usually respond.

Presenting a science to teens and pre-teens in a non-scientific way is a hurdle the nutritionist and psychologists need to understand and presenting it at the right time of the lifecycle when it is best absorbed.

More Wednesday on what to present and how.

Amazing Yours,
Dr. Marlene

You can learn some of the secrets for teens and about my weight loss of 170 lbs. and the mental methods that I used in my book: The Thinking Side to Thin: available at Amazon or under links to my sites.