Make “Fall Cleaning” the Pantry Part of Your Back to School Routine

Whether yours is a single-parent family or both parents work, chances are good that your older kids will spend some time alone after school during this school year. Even kids with stay-at-home moms aren’t supervised 100% of the time. What your kids eat when you’re not looking might surprise you. You’ve heard of spring cleaning, but have you ever considered fall cleaning? I’m talking about cleaning out your pantry, getting rid of unhealthy snacks.

Your kids won’t have to fight the temptation when they’re home alone if you fight temptation at the grocery store. Make it easy on your kids to eat healthy by only providing healthy options at home. They can have sweets and salty snacks on occasion, but only on occasion. If you keep these foods in your pantry, your kids are likely to eat them as often as they can get away with it.

Not only that, they’re likely to combine these unhealthy snacks in new, creative, and humorously disgusting ways. Remember when you were a kid? What horrible food combinations did you come up with? Some of the combinations I’ve heard over the years include sugary cereal with chocolate malted milk balls and marshmallows, peanut butter and chocolate chips on white bread, marshmallows melted in the microwave.

Healthy after-school snacks for kids

Get rid of potato chips
Replace them with whole wheat crackers with low fat cheese. Read the labels of the crackers at the store. Buy two or three that seem relatively healthy. Let your kids decide which to keep in the pantry. This way, you get their buy-in.

Get rid of toaster pastries with fruit filling
Replace them with multigrain bread with raspberry jam. You get extra points for choosing sugar-free jam!

Get rid of pizza rolls
Replace them with English muffins, pizza sauce, and low fat mozzarella. Try to find a pizza sauce made with fresh ingredients, no preservatives. Your kids can spread the sauce on half of a muffin, sprinkle with a tablespoon of cheese, and then microwave for 30 seconds or so. This doesn’t take any longer than microwaving the frozen pizza rolls would, but is guaranteed to be much lower in fat.

Get rid of fruit-flavored snacks
Replace them with fruit.  A good rule of thumb is: The less processed a food is, the better it is. Snacks don’t get any healthier than fruit.Your kids are likely to gravitate toward food that’s easy to grab and go. If you make fall cleaning your pantry part of your back to school routine, you can ensure that they make healthy choices because only healthy foods will be available to them.

Your kids are likely to gravitate toward food that’s easy to grab and go. If you make fall cleaning your pantry part of your back to school routine, you can ensure that they make healthy choices because only healthy foods will be available to them.

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3 Tips for a Healthy Family Road Trip this Summer

Between Memorial Day and Labor Day, American families take to the highways. They pile the kids (and maybe the pets) into the car, load the luggage wherever they can fit it, and hit the road. Whether they’re visiting relatives or seeing the sights, these summer trips help them bond as a family and build shared memories that they’ll laugh about for the rest of their lives. The summer road trip is an American tradition not to be missed.

But there’s part of this annual American tradition that should be left far behind: fast food, sugary drinks, and unhealthy snacks. Childhood obesity is an epidemic in the United States. Plainly put, there are more fat kids today than at any time in history. Fat kids are much more likely to grow up to become fat adults.

Because of childhood obesity today, children could have a shorter life span than their parents. No parent wants to outlive their child, but it becomes much more likely when the child in question suffers from diabetes, heart disease, or any of the other serious medical problems associated with obesity.

By following these simple tips, your family road trip will be both healthy and fun – in fact, I believe that these tips will make the road trip more fun than it would’ve been if you had indulged every unhealthy whim.

Skip the fast food, period. Memories are not made at a fast food restaurant. In fact, every McDonald’s around the world looks basically the same. While that’s a large part of the appeal for people who are afraid to try new foods, it also drains the color out of the interesting places you’re visiting. Make it a challenge for your family to avoid fast food restaurants during the entire trip.

Turn it into a game. The first person to spot a fast food restaurant gets a point – or award a different number of points for different chains. But do not stop at any of them. Use this opportunity to discuss why and how you’re making better choices.

Instead, eat at local restaurants, and try to find healthy choices on the menu. Salads are a good bet, especially if you don’t load them up with dressing. Grilled chicken or fish with vegetables on the side. Not only will this make for a healthier meal for your kids, but this will also help you build those shared family memories. You can taste homemade macaroni and cheese in Wisconsin or gumbo in Louisiana. Sampling regional food is one of the most delightful things about traveling. Don’t let your kids miss out!

Look for the blue signs. On American highways, most directional road signs are green. They tell you where to exit for gas, food, and lodging. Blue signs direct you to rest areas. By picnicking at a rest area, you can save money, eat healthier, and get some exercise, too. When you pack the lunch, you control what goes into it. Fresh fruit, healthy sandwiches, water or juice to drink. You really don’t need much. Your kids can run around and play while you set up, then grab a bite to eat before playing some more.

Plan on spending the same amount of time at the rest stop that you would have spent at a restaurant. In other words, relax. You don’t have to gobble down your food and rush to hit the road again. In fact, the more you allow the kids to expend their energy by playing outside, the more likely they are to settle down in the car and stop bugging you with whining and fighting.

By looking for the blue signs along the road, you will help your kids build great memories together. Getting there really will be half the fun of the trip.

Buy healthy snacks. Don’t feel that you’re depriving your kids if you tell them they can’t have the salty potato chips they’re begging you to buy at the convenience store. Shift the way you look at such moments. You are not depriving them of a momentary pleasure – you are giving your children the gift of a healthier future. They may not see it that way until they have children of their own, but there will come a day when your kids will thank you for being strong enough to say no.

Instead of chips, offer to buy your kids a snack that has at least some nutritional value. (All snacking should be done sparingly, of course.) Raisins, fruit, crackers with peanut butter, nuts, trail mix… even at the gas station, you can usually find something better for the body than chips.

The summer family road trip is a treasured American tradition, and so it should be. We can keep everything that we love about this tradition while abandoning the unhealthy habits that are making us fat. Leave the fat, not the fun!

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Let Your Kids Feel Hunger Sometimes

Hunger can be an important weapon in the battle against childhood obesity. Parents sometimes go overboard in making sure their children never feel hungry, even for a moment.

Teaching kids to feel hungry sometimes could lead to better nutrition and healthier bodies.

3 Reasons Why Hunger Can Be Good

1. Less snacking means kids will eat more at mealtime.

One of the greatest causes of childhood obesity – and indeed, obesity at any age – is snacking between meals. Snacks tend to be high-calorie processed foods with very little to recommend them nutritionally. When kids are not given too many snacks between meals, they will eat more at mealtime.

Of course, this is only a good thing when those meals are healthy. A kid who’s a little hungry is more likely to eat vegetables without complaint.

I don’t suggest avoiding snacks altogether. However, if a child complains of hunger within an hour of mealtime, parents should consider allowing the child to remain hungry or perhaps serve the meal a few minutes early. When parents do provide snacks, the portion size should be very small, and the food should be healthy. One small piece of celery with peanut butter often provides enough energy for the body to make it to the next meal.

One cautionary note about this: Children who get too hungry between meals tend to overeat. Parents should try to slow down the meal to give the kids’ stomachs time to send the “I’m full” signal to the brain. A great way to do this is to use mealtime to catch up on the kids’ days.

Mealtime should be family bonding time.

2. Kids will gain a better understanding of their bodies.

When children are very young, they don’t necessarily make the connection that food is the fuel that powers the body. In fact, they may turn to food for emotional comfort as much as for any other reason, particularly when parents’ automatic response to crying is to fill the child’s mouth. By allowing small children to be hungry for short periods of time, parents teach the children that food should be used to sate hunger, rather than as an emotional balm.

It’s important for older children to learn that they won’t starve if they’re hungry for an hour or so. They can continue to function. Parents can use these times to teach their children to distract themselves from the hunger. When they focus on something else – preferably something active and fun – the time before the next meal passes in a flash. Often, parents find that their children were more bored than hungry in the first place.

3. Kids will learn to eat on the family’s schedule.

Children can be manipulative as they test their limits, and parents must have a plan for dealing with this power struggle. When a child refuses to eat the food provided by his parents at meals, the consequence should be hunger. Allowing the child to live with the unpleasant sensation of a growling stomach for a couple of hours will teach him to eat when food is provided.

This is easier said than done, I know, when parents are concerned that their children aren’t getting adequate nutrition. In the long run, though, eating at mealtimes will lead to better nutrition. Even the most stubborn kids learn this lesson quickly when parents remain strong.

Don’t fear hunger

Hunger between meals is not something to fear. In fact, a little hunger can go a long way toward preventing childhood obesity.

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Today’s Menu: Menestra

Menestra is a summer dish very easy to prepare. There is no excuse not to have a nutritious dinner for the family, when we can reach over and have a menestra prepared in no time. Some of the ingredients can be kept frozen until ready to cook. One of them is the “home-made tomato sauce” I explained before. I am going to repeat the ingredients and preparation of this basic because it is worth to keep it ready to go in your freezer.

This tomato sauce combines fresh green ingredients and contains no preservatives or chemicals; just natural ingredients with some salt and pepper to taste. I make a batch of it on the weekend and find plenty of occasions to use it during the week.

Here are the ingredients:

4 large, fresh tomatoes or 1 can of tomato puree
½ onion
1 leek
1 small carrot
2 garlic cloves
Fresh parsley
Oregano
Basil
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Pinch of sugar (optional)

Preparation:

In a saucepan, heat up 4 tablespoons of olive oil. Cut the onion, garlic, leek, fresh parsley and carrot in small pieces and cook it in the oil for about 5 minutes. Add the tomato puree or the fresh tomatoes (peeled and cut). Cook in low heat for about 30 minutes. Separate from the heat and mix, using a hand blender, until all he ingredients are forming a sauce of uniform consistency. Add the dried oregano and basil, salt and pepper and cook for additional 10 minutes. You can also add a pinch of sugar is desired.

This sauce is typically added to cooked pasta, but this time we are going to use it to make Menestra, a vegetable dish.

But we are going to need few other simple ingredients:
1 bag of fresh frozen green peas and carrots
1 bag of fresh frozen green beans
½ onion
3 tablespoons of olive oil
½ lb of cooked ham, cubed
1 hard-boiled egg

You just need to cook the frozen vegetables in hot water until tender, drain and reserve.

In a saucepan, heat the olive oil and add the onion, cut in small pieces. When the onion is soft and transparent, add the cubed ham and cook for about 7 minutes. Now you can add the cooked vegetables, stirring frequently. Add 1 cup of the previously prepared tomato sauce, cover and allow cooking for about 40 minutes in low. While cooking, all the juices from the vegetables will soak the flavor and spices from the tomato sauce, and the result will be a vegetable dish even youngsters will try and enjoy.

After cooked, you can cut up pieces of hard-boiled egg on top for decoration and extra protein.

This combination provides a healthy amount of vitamins and fiber from all the greens and tomatoes, plus a protein source in the ham and egg ingredients.

This is the way we can efficiently create a balanced meal. All the ingredients in the dish, when put together, meet the nutritional needs of children and adults.

Some mothers are asking me what to do to lose or maintain weight. They are concerned about their own weight and they are afraid their own eating habits may translate into future weight problem in their children.

All menus and dishes offered here are suitable for the whole family, from toddlers to elderly. Different age groups may eat different amounts of the same dish/meal, but all age groups should benefit from it. A small toddler, for example, may need to have this dish semi-pureed, while a teenager may need to eat two servings of it. Providing one meal for all also saves preparation time and is budget friendly.

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From Spain With Love

Many times I have tried to analyze why I feel more energized, lighter and healthier while on vacation in Spain. My conclusion is that, while on vacation, I am more relaxed and I have more time to be active. This time I am paying attention; I have been here for one week and the level of activity is superior to the level I have in Texas. It is not by choice, but a result in the differences in life style, local habits and lack of all the commodities we take for granted in America.

We must face it. We, in the United States, have created a very comfortable way of life that makes our work and daily activities easier, but at the same time it takes away from energy consumption. We use private transportation all the way to the entrance of the store and we get upset when we have to park far away from the door. We have drive-thru pharmacies, banks, restaurants and dry cleaners, and at home we can afford to keep the thermostat as close as possible to ideal temperature. We try very hard to avoid sweating in the summer and shivering in the winter, two body reactions to changes in temperature that expend energy and, therefore, help maintain a healthy weight.

My family here in Spain has set habits that they repeat daily, rain or shine. In the morning I must walk to town to pick up a loaf of fresh French bread and the newspaper. The walk is most pleasant and it takes barely ten minutes, but the way back home means climbing up a steep road that is hardly noticeable on the way down. Taking the car? Forget it! There is no place to park near the destination. I tried, believe me, but I ended up walking the same distance. When it rains, or if I have to make a quick stop at the grocery store, carrying the bags and the umbrella up the hill makes it even more interesting.

Food must be prepared fresh and from scratch on a daily basis. Sometimes I can get away with leftovers, but we try to prepare small amounts and we rarely have leftovers. Since we eat fish almost daily, we buy what we are going to prepare for the day, which means we must visit the market often.

Sometimes I pick up the ingredients for lunch on my way to the bakery/newspaper trip in the morning, but if the grocery list is larger we take the car to go to the store, which involves finding a parking spot, carrying bags, loading and unloading and walking several sets of stairs with bags on both hands. Nobody seems to pay attention to the amount of energy spent just to prepare meals destined to generate energy. My spoiled body noticed right away; it has been one week and I am just starting to get used to it.

Energy Intake = Energy Expenditure.

This is a very important equation we must keep in mind if we want to avoid fat accumulation. When we consume too much energy in the form of food and we don’t expend enough energy, in the form of exercise, we accumulate the excess energy in the form of body fat. As simple as that.

Countries with less incidence of obesity don’t posses information that is not available to us. They simply have habits that are maintained daily. They are also capable of going through changes in environmental temperature without touching the thermostat.

Here are some tips to gear our body towards energy consumption during the Texas summer:

• Maintain the indoor temperature no lower than 80 degrees in the summer.
• Wear lighter clothing and allow some degree of sweating to eliminate toxins.
• Take advantage of the Texas summer heat. Go for a 30-minute walk in the evening. The heat adds to the energy expenditure and the ½ hour walk outdoors is equivalent to 1-hour walk on a treadmill.
• Spend 1 hour gardening on the weekend: cutting the grass, pulling weeds, planting, watering, etc.
• Once a week, walk to a near-by destination. My favorite is walking home from work (3 miles), but I sometimes walk to HEB or to the video store.

Try this plan for just one week, drinking plenty of water before and after exercise. Then tell me how you feel. I can guaranty an increase in energy level and well being, even when, during the first few days, you are more aware of the discomfort imposed by the change in body habits.

We must create a certain degree of discomfort in order to generate energy.

Just do it.

Marta Katalenas M.D.

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You Can Fight Childhood Obesity – Parents Have Power Over Food Companies

Recently, a company introduced a chocolate-flavored toddler formula to the market, claiming that it would encourage picky eaters to get more of the nutrition they needed. Sounds good, right? The problem came when you took time to read the label – one of the first three ingredients in this formula was sugar! In fact, the chocolate formula had 19 grams of sugar per serving.

19 grams of sugar in one serving. One serving of a drink going into the body of a 12- to 36-month-old child.

Parents and nutritionists were outraged, and rightfully so. In light of the childhood obesity epidemic in America and around the world, the last thing that infant formula makers should be doing is creating products that help children develop a craving for sweets. We must help very young children develop healthy eating habits right from the start.

This story has a happy ending. The company has decided to pull their chocolate-flavored formula from the marketplace. It will no longer be available for sale. (Sadly, the vanilla-flavored formula, with 18 grams of sugar, will remain in stores.)

Parents have a lot of power over the companies that make children’s food. You are not helpless. You get to decide what your children put into their mouths. At least until they are old enough to start leaving the nest a bit. That’s why it’s so important to teach them proper eating habits when they’re young.

Putting Power into Practice

The Power of Your Voice

The chocolate-flavored formula story is a terrific example of the power of parents speaking up. Make your thoughts known. When the chocolate-flavored formula was introduced to the market, influential bloggers shared their thoughts online, most notably Marion Nestle, a professor at NYU and the nutrition expert who writes a popular blog about food politics. (An ironic name for a woman speaking out against chocolate.)

Regular moms and dads took up the fight, and you know the rest. You, too, can write letters and emails to the food companies. Believe me, they read the letters they receive, and they listen. You are their target market. They want to stay on your good side.

You can also write to the press and to bloggers. Let the world know when you see something that isn’t right. You may feel that the power of one voice is insignificant, but the power of a thousand voices combined grows exponentially.

The Power of Your Pocketbook

Don’t buy junk food. For the sake of your children, don’t even buy it for yourself. Remember, it’s a lot easier to resist temptation at the grocery store than it is to resist temptation at home. If you don’t buy it, it won’t call to you from the pantry, or to your kids.

Junk food undermines your efforts to teach kids good eating habits. Allowing junk food in your home teaches kids to reach for bad food choices, often when they’re not even hungry.

Make it a practice to read labels at the store. You don’t have to understand everything on the label, but do look at the number of calories, the amount of salt, and the amount of sugar. You will start to see patterns, and you’ll learn which foods are good for your kids.

Another way to exercise the power of your pocketbook is to stop allowing your children to watch commercial TV. It’s always good to limit screen time (including both the television and the computer), but it’s also important to determine what type of screen time your kids are allowed. Studies have shown that kids who watch commercial TV are more likely to be overweight or obese than kids who watch DVDs and television shows without commercials.

When your kids don’t see commercials, they don’t crave food that is bad for them. It will make your visits to the grocery store much more pleasant, as your children won’t plead with you to buy these high-salt, high-sugar, low-nutrition foods.

As a parent, you have more power than you realize over childhood obesity. All it takes is awareness and a conscious effort to do everything you can to ensure that your children eat healthy, well-balanced meals. The habits they develop today will influence them for the rest of their lives. Help them to avoid all the health problems associated with being fat. They will thank you for it one day.

And if there’s a picky eater in your family, talk to your pediatrician about healthy strategies to encourage him or her to eat more. Don’t reach for products like chocolate formula.

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One Week Healthy Menu Plan…From Scratch!

One of the main concerns parents share with me, when it comes to providing good nutrition to their family, is the issue of food preparation. Young parents tell me they have difficulties deciding what to buy, how to prepare it and how to balance work and cooking duties.

We all have busy lives, electronic devices and the whole array of technology we all use daily is not helping. If anything, it adds to the consumption of time, allowing still less time to plan meals.

With these concerns in mind I’ve created a one-week sample menu that can be followed step-by-step, taking away a lot of the guess-work and decision-making. You can find this menu plan on my web site and it includes a grocery list and even a financial profile to help you understand the cost of eating healthy.

But before you start, allow me to explain a few items.

The week’s menu should be started on a Sunday. Why? For decades I have been managing the same challenges you have by doing my grocery shopping on Sunday and spending a couple of hours of my Sunday afternoon preparing some of the more time consuming dishes, in order to get ahead of the week.

If you start the menu on any other day, you are going to see references to dishes prepared the day before and the whole menu becomes less helpful.

Check out the grocery list first. It provides you with what you need to get from the store for the whole week. You won’t have to go grocery shopping again for 7 days.

I created the menu for a family of four members, two adults and two children. If the children are toddlers, the menu may last more than one week, since you are going to end up with leftovers on most of the days.

I don’t mention the amount of food to be served per person. For the children, the amount they eat depends on their age. But I do include some general ideas about serving size in the introduction and information. You really need to read it all in order to understand the principal behind the idea.

The menu includes breakfast, afternoon snack (mainly for the children) and dinner. This is because most children eat lunch at school and parents eat at work. Those staying at home can use leftovers from dinner to prepare lunch. This plan works during school days, when most kids require a snack when they come home from school. If you are following this menu in the summer I would suggest skipping the afternoon snack if kids (and adults) get up later that usual.

I hope this menu is a helpful for your busy life. I also hope it can give you the tools to understand how to prepare a balanced meal at home.

I invite you to try it out and to give me feedback about the menu itself, as well as the layout of the web content and your understanding of the concept.

You can find the Dr. K’s Prescription menu, shopping list, and recipes at www.drkatalenas.com.

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Can You Afford to Feed Your Kids Fruits and Vegetables?

In the White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity Report to the President, issued May 2010, the relatively high price of fresh fruits and vegetables is suggested as one possible contributing factor in today’s childhood obesity epidemic. Indeed, the highest incidence of obesity takes place in low-income neighborhoods. Poor children in America aren’t starving to death – they’re eating themselves to death by loading up on high-calorie, low-nutrition foods.

The Task Force recommends changes to national policies that they hope will reduce the price of healthy foods while making unhealthy foods more expensive. They want to level the playing field as far as food prices go because they believe that Americans will choose healthy foods when given that choice. The stated goal of their report is to solve the problem of childhood obesity in the U.S. within a generation.

But You Can’t Wait a Generation

You can’t wait until their policies take effect. Your children are growing up now. The Task Force recommends big-picture changes that will steer the country in the right direction, but the change in direction will happen slowly, like an ocean liner fighting the tide to turn around. You’re more nimble. You can move fast. By acting now, you can make an immediate impact on your children’s health.

Can you afford to feed your kids fruits and vegetables?

The better question is: Can you afford not to?

While you’re budgeting for your family meals, consider this. The financial cost of childhood obesity is likely to be much higher than making healthy choices at the grocery store. Buying fruits and vegetables may be slightly more expensive than buying processed foods, but in the long run, you’ll save money when you eat healthy.

Childhood Obesity Is Expensive

Overweight kids are more likely to suffer from a host of medical problems such as high blood pressure, diabetes, asthma, and more. Don’t allow your eyes to simply brush past those words. Stop and think about what you’re doing to your children when you allow them to get fat. In extreme cases, each of these health issues can lead to death. They will certainly lead to more visits to the doctor and the drugstore, which will cost you more money.

Children who don’t eat a healthy diet often have difficulty academically. They need the proper nutrients in order to focus. They simply can’t concentrate. Weigh the cost of healthy food against the cost of hiring a tutor or shelling out for after-school programs, and the choice becomes a little easier.

Many obese children suffer from low self-esteem, which can lead to behavioral problems in school, at home, and in public. A poorly behaved child is by definition more destructive than a well behaved child, and you as the parent will pay for that destruction in one way or another. If low self-esteem leads to depression, as it often does, you may find yourself paying for counseling, as well.

If you still think you can’t afford to pay a little extra for the fruits, vegetables, and whole grains your children need, take a good, long look at how you spend your money. You love your children. You would die for them. You’re willing to sacrifice your life for them, but are you willing to sacrifice cable TV? Are you willing to sacrifice your cell phone?

Nothing is more important than the wellbeing of your children.

Dr. Marta Katalenas, M.D.

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Simple Tips to Get Teens to Eat Healthier

Teenagers are notoriously unhealthy eaters. They are still young enough to feel as though they’ll live forever but are old enough to want to make their own decisions about what to eat. Nagging them won’t work. In fact, nagging is more likely to make them rebel.

Instead, parents should make it easy for teens to make good choices by following these simple tips.

Give them “fast food” choices at home

A bowl of fruit is beautiful. Dark red apples, brilliant oranges, lovely yellow bananas. The colors are eye-catching… and yet, teens may walk past this beautiful bowl of fruit for a week until, sadly, parents are forced to throw it in the trash. If they go through this cycle often enough, they might give up and stop buying fruit.

But when parents put out a plate of apple wedges or orange slices already peeled, the fruit is likely to disappear within minutes. Same food, different presentation. When food is easy to grab and go, teens are likely to reach for a healthy snack.

The same is true of vegetables. When teens come home from school to find a handy vegetable tray in the refrigerator, they can get an after-school energy boost with nutritional value. Grocery stores make this very easy. Busy parents will pay a premium to get fruits and vegetables pre-cut, but when the additional cost is weighed against the health costs of overloading on junk food, the proper choice is clear.

Sneak stealthy healthy foods into their favorite meals

There are easy ways to make teens’ favorite meals healthier, and the whole family benefits from the extra vitamins. With lasagna, for example, fresh, chopped spinach can be added to the cheese layer. The spinach doesn’t noticeably change the flavor, but it certainly changes the nutrition count.

Most teens love pizza. Whole wheat pizza crust is a delicious base. Whole grains take longer to digest, so whole wheat crust will keep teens feeling full longer and will help prevent them from overeating. Pizza can be a very healthy choice, especially when made with low-fat mozzarella and lots of vegetables.

Ask teens to pack a lunch each evening

Teens often skip lunch simply because they’re too rushed in the morning to pack lunch, and they don’t have cash to buy a meal at school. (Just as bad, they have plenty of cash, and they fill up on junk.) If parents make it a part of the routine each evening for teens to make their lunch the night before – and provide healthy choices – then the groggy early-morning teen need only grab the lunch bag on his way out the door.

Let teens feed the family once a week

Teaching teens about nutrition is great, but when “teaching” turns to “lecturing,” they’ll tune parents out. But teens might appreciate being given responsibility for feeding the family once a week, or even just once in a while. If the young person grumbles, parents can turn it into something fun by allowing a friend to come over to help. At this age, children are very social, and they love any excuse to be with their friends.

The teens can plan the meal in advance, and talk it over briefly with parents to ensure it’s properly balanced. In this way, they’ll learn about nutrition by doing, which is always better than learning by listening to an adult drone on and on.

At www.kidshealth.org/teens, kids can learn about the food pyramid and find recipes. The site is packed with information about the body, so teens can learn answers to questions they’re too embarrassed to ask.

Dr. Marta Katalenas, M.D.

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