What is Normal?
Q & A - Nutrition & Teens

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DG) are science-based advice that promotes health and a lower risk of chronic disease. Published every five years by United States Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Agriculture (USDA), DG serve as nutrition goals for federal food and nutrition programs such as, school food service; Women, Infant and Children Nutrition Program (WIC); Food Stamps; and Extension Education programs.

MyPyramid is an eating plan created by USDA using the Dietary Guidelines and the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI). The DRIs focus specifically on nutrients and the amounts needed by Americans.

MyPyramid recommends:

• Eat nutrient-rich foods to get the most nutrition from your calories
• Balancing your calories with physical activity to maintain a healthy weight

Pyramid Plus food chart is a colorful guide, created by Oregon Dairy Council, to help with making healthy food choices. The "Plus" of Pyramid Plus refers to nutrient-rich foods. The more nutrients per calorie, the more nutrient-rich the food. Within food groups, foods provide different amounts of nutrients per calorie. Pyramid Plus has a nutrient-rich list of food and several goal-setting activities to help make it happen.

Related sites and documents

 Dietary Guidelines - A Healthier You

 Pyramid Plus food chart - one free copy

 Pyramid Plus details

Evaluating nutrition information can be a challenge! The Chew on This Lesson (back of What is Normal poster) highlights key nutrition concepts giving teens a chance to personalize and practice. Key nutrition concepts on the poster are:

• Variety within your food choices equals more nutrients
• Shoot for nutrient-rich within each food group
• To make nutrient-rich foods, the easy choice - plan, ask, and choose
• Be mindful when you eat - enjoy food and let hunger tell you when you have eaten enough
• Learn how to evaluate your nutrition and set goals to improve, when needed

Additional key nutrition concepts likely to be need-to-knows for most teens are:

• Focus on the quality of your total diet, not just one snack, one meal, or one day
• Compare total daily amounts from each food group with the amount recommended for you
• The amount does count, consider it for both portion size and exercise

When considering the array of glitzy ideas and spins found on the internet, in magazines, in health clubs and everywhere; refer back to the gold standards - Dietary Guidelines, Dietary Reference Intakes, MyPyramid, and Consensus Statements by nutrition leaders. If only one person or one group is making a new statement or discovery, wait awhile before you consider it a fact. Expect to find reputable experts quoting good research and the facts.

Related sites and documents

 Eating out, shopping, and more - Nutrient Rich Foods Coalition

 Recipes for Teens

 Tips to use MyPyramid

 No Bones About it - AAP [PDF]

Calorie needs for teenagers range between 1,600 to 3,200 calories/day, depending on activity level, age, gender, size, genetics, and more.

Considering this wide range of calorie and nutrient needs, it is easy to understand the confusion and to understand why there is not a normal amount for all teens. When calorie needs are 1,600 to 3,200, the following range amounts will give teens the nutrients needed:

• Fruits - 1½ to 2½ cups
• Vegetables - 2 cups to 4 cups
• Grains - 5 oz. to 10 oz.
• Meat/Beans - 5 oz. to 7 oz.
• Milk - 3 cups

This is a general guideline. Teens can individualize the amounts for themselves by using the extensive charts in the links that follow. These calculations include age and activity levels.

The bottom line is to encourage teens to become aware of their needs, generally what they are eating, and to practice once in a while, by checking to see how they are doing over a couple of days.

Related sites and documents

 MyPyramid Food Intake Patterns [PDF]

 MyPyramid Calorie Levels [PDF]

 Healthy Weight Loss with Young Athletes - AAP [PDF]

The terms portion size and serving size are confusing to many people, not just kids! And because they are confusing sometimes they have been used interchangeably which has added to the confusion. No, understanding the terms will not likely affect their eating habits. But learning to be aware of their eating habits, including the portions and amounts they eat compared to their physical needs or to their friend's physical needs will set the stage for a mindful approach to eating. Eating without thinking, looking or tasting the food in the bag or on the fast food tray or the new very large dinner plate is one part of overeating in America.

By understanding commonly used terms, teens can start to use mindful eating with their food choices. For example, a portion is simply the amount of food you choose to eat for a meal or snack. It is the amount eaten at a restaurant or from a vending machine. It can be big or small - you decide.

A serving is the pre-determined amount or weight of food used for a packaged food's Nutrition Facts. It is not a recommendation for an amount to eat. U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sets standard sizes for many foods to make the calories and nutrient information easily seen on the package. Knowing that serving sizes are about the same for similar products, gives teens a choice by comparing products.

Many foods packaged in a commonly eaten portion are more than one serving. Most people don't realize this and when they look quickly at the calories, total fat, and nutrients, they may not see the real amount of calories and nutrients they are going to eat.

Related sites and documents

 Inside MyPyramid - Serving sizes

 Using the Nutrition Facts Label

 Nutrition Facts and Nutrient-Rich Foods [PDF]

Knowing does not always translate to doing. But it can be a starting point to go further. It's good to build in practice and a chance to make real decisions. Using real food examples are great, but are not always possible. Next best are food models, such as plastic life-size ones or cardboard photographs in actual food sizes.

Is eating less always the goal? For example, if you serve yourself two cups of pasta, your portion size is 2 cups. The FDA-established serving size for pasta is ½ cup. That means you have actually served yourself 4 servings of pasta.

Is this amount too much or just right? It depends...2 cups equals 4 oz. so for an inactive teen who needs about 5 oz. of grains per day, it is a large portion for one meal. For an active teen needing 10 oz. each day, that still leaves 6 oz. for other snacks and meals. It is important again to remember everyone is different. Have teens put portion information into the context of food for a day to determine if 2 cups is too much for one meal. And learning what a one cup portion of pasta goes along with mindful eating.

Related sites and documents

 Find Food Models from Oregon Dairy Council

 Portion Distortion Quiz [PDF]

 Rate a Full Plate - from Wyoming Extension [PDF]

Extras or sometimes foods, also called discretionary calories with MyPyramid, are like electives in school: calories that you can choose to use. You can use them on a splurge like a chocolate dessert or to add flavor to foods, such as butter on toast or breading on fish.

Extra calories = Total energy required - Calories needed for nutrient needs.

Save room for extras without going over your daily energy needs:

• Focus on nutrient-rich foods that provide more nutrients per calorie. Eat nutrient-rich foods to fulfill nutrient needs with fewer calories, this means more calories to use as you choose.
• Move more! Increasing physical activity burns more calories. Dance in line at the movies, take the stairs, park a distance from the store; make simple changes in your routine to burn more calories.

Related sites and documents

 Portions - Just Enough [PDF]

A vegetarian diet can be a healthy way to eat. The key to adequate nutrients with any diet, including a vegetarian diet, is variety in the right amounts. For a vegetarian diet, it means fruits, vegetables, whole grain foods, nuts, seeds, legumes, dairy products and eggs. A vegan diet, with only foods from plant origin, will take more planning to get the necessary nutrition.

Nutrients that tend to be low in vegetarian diets are iron, protein, calcium, zinc and B12. Pre-teens and teens especially need to focus on these nutrients as they already have an increased need for calcium, iron, zinc, and protein because of their age. Practice in planning and analyzing their diet and sample vegetarian diets will show teens how to make healthy food choices that equal a healthy total diet.

Related sites and documents

 MyPyramid for Vegetarians

 MyPyramid-Tracker diet analysis

 Vegetarian recipes for teens

 Vegetarian topics from Medline

Mindful eating is the practice of using all your senses to be aware of your eating and food choices: what the food looks and tastes like, how it satisfies hunger, and what emotions have been involved in your choices. Mindful eating means understanding and being in charge of the food choices made. It is non-judgmental about choices but with practice, hunger and satiety cues will play an important part of eating.

Related sites and documents

 Being in the Moment When Eating [PDF]

 Principles of Mindful Eating [PDF]