Eating Healthy / Question
Published: October 19, 2001
Dear TeenHealthFX,
I am a 14 year old male, about 5'5" and 100 pounds. I know this is kind of light, but I eat a lot. The thing is, I'm very active and barely eat any junk food. My parents think I'm too rigid and should eat more fattening things and exercise less. I really like to get outside. What should I do?
Signed: A Little Light, But Healthy
Dear A Little Light, But Healthy,
There is nothing wrong with being active and spending time outside exercising. In fact, you should be getting regular exercise each day (for a highlight of a good plan, see Best Time To Exercise). If you are over-exercising, then there may be some reason for concern. Talk to your doctor, coach or gym teacher for help in making a good exercise plan for you.
In addition to exercise, eating healthy is equally as important. Not eating junk food is not a bad thing (it is actually a pretty healthy thing to do) unless you are purposely restricting yourself because you do not want to gain weight. A good guide for eating healthy and getting a balanced diet is the Food Pyramid. Use this as a guide, but you probably need more servings in each group in order to gain weight.
TeenHealthFX highly recommend that you go see your doctor and a nutritionist to discuss your diet and how you can eat properly.
As far as your parents go:
You wrote into TeenHealthFX about this, so your parents' opinions must be important to you. It is good that you care about what your parents think, but you may disagree with their opinion. One way to potentially solve this problem is to talk with your parents and doctor about this at the same time. Ideally, you could speak with your doctor about this alone first and then have him/her bring in your parents. Then you could all discuss it. Also, speak to your doctor and parents about seeing a nutritionist. This will show both your parents and your doctor that you are taking responsibility for your body and that you are interested in eating properly.
Signed: TeenHealthFX
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