The cigarettes, crisps and creme egg diet

Do you know what YOUR teenager’s eating?

A recent study revealed that teenage girls are starving their bodies of essential nutrients and smoking in an effort to stay thin like their celebrity role models.

The Daily Mail tracked one teenagers diet and the results are mind blowing to say the least!

DAY ONE

MORNING: I woke up really late for college, as usual, so I skipped breakfast. My mum leaves for work before I’m awake, but she always puts out a bowl of cereal and some fruit for me – but I just threw it in the bin and then covered the evidence with coffee granules.

I know it’s a waste and she’d kill me if she found out. I just had a glass of water instead.

AFTERNOON: My Dad gives me £50 at the start of the week and that’s meant to cover my lunches and my train fare to college.

But I always buy about two packets of cigarettes a week which cost £12, so there’s not much left for healthy food.

I read that models such as Kate Moss smoke to suppress their appetite and thought I would try it, and it does really work. All the girls at college smoke – I think I’d stand out if I didn’t.

I’m not worried about the health effects because I’ll give up in a couple of years. I always carry perfume and mints so my parents can’t smell smoke on my clothes or breath. Today I had three cigs instead of lunch.

EVENING: By 5pm I was starving and I ate a bar of Galaxy, a full bag of prawn crackers and a current bun.

In the evening, I told my mum I was going to a friend’s house to study, but went to the pub with my boyfriend. I had a glass of water with lime in it and a glass of cola.

I didn’t order alcohol in case one of my parents’ friends saw me – I hate living in a village sometimes.

In the pub, I also ordered taramasalata with pitta bread, but it wasn’t really enough because when I got home I had half a tube of Pringles and some sour cream dip. I also smoked two cigarettes out of my bedroom window

Read the rest here

When you read this, it is quite shocking and, from my experience, cigarettes and junk food can make up the diets of teenage girls. However, younger children do appear to be getting the health message and I think this will soon be a thing of the past.

When you read this, what becomes clear is that, when they have a family meal, this child does eat correctly, which is very encouraging. And while you cannot dictate what your child eats outside the house, you certainly can inside the house. If you don’t want your child to eat junk food, don’t buy any and make a rule that if they want it then they have to buy it themselves. Believe me, it will soon stop.

While this does not obviously tackle all the problems of body image and smoking, it would ensure that at least they were eating healthier. Read the diet and make your own conclusion, but my two pieces of advice would be to eat a family meal each day and don’t buy junk food.

When is comes to body image and cigarettes, I believe that nothing beats having a conversation about this with your children. And if you are not sure where to start, you can always buy a pack of our teen conversation cards.

Food and youth – no breakfast for me

1.2m children start their school day with a cigarette or junk food

More than 1.2million children begin the day by eating junk food or smoking cigarettes instead of having a proper breakfast, a survey shows. One in four seven to fourteen-year-olds snack on crisps, chocolate or biscuits before going to school, while one fourteen-year-old in thirty just has a cigarette.
The survey found that many parents gave out ‘breakfast money’ so their children could buy food on the way to school, instead of eating at home. However, a substantial slice of that went on unhealthy snacks.

Children spend £646million a year on biscuits and cake as well as Pepperami meat snacks, pasties and burgers as they travel to classes, the report said. Nutritionist Kathy Cowbrough has warned that children’s performance in the classroom will suffer as a result of their diet as they lose concentration and cause disruption. “How often have we all seen young children not wanting to co-operate with harassed parents, or school children unable to stay alert for valuable lessons at school?” she asks.
“This is because missing a decent breakfast means we can be saying goodbye to up to a quarter of the nutrients and energy we need for the day, making us more tired, irritable and less able to concentrate in the morning

This was so shocking to me; when I read this it reminded me of Sausage Roll Boy, a boy I see nearly every morning. The first morning I saw him in the local shop buying a multipack of massive sausage rolls, I thought, “I wonder if his mum realises that he is buying that for his lunch?” Imagine my shock when he then proceeded to eat them all outside – they were his breakfast. He became known as Sausage Roll Boy and every day he eats something like this, every day looking tired, depressed and a little more angry. I wonder if they are just blaming him for his lack of concentration and his inability to focus well at school? This is so typical of our attitude in this country; we take such a one-sided look at behaviour, rather than taking an holistic look. Parents, it is this simple; if your child eats crap, then guess how they feel all day, guess how they will come home? Food plays a massive role in how we feel, in how we behave and in our attitudes. It is about time we woke up and smelled the coffee, or the pastry in the case of Sausage Roll Boy.

Read 1.2m children start their school day with a cigarette or junk food

Could your Teenagers bad mood be down to food?

Become a Food Detective With Your Child

Are you setting your teenager up for the day

What you give your teenager or child for breakfast could have a huge impact on their day.

Eat Your Breakfast! By Karen Schachter, MSW

Throw out the fruit loops!

We’ve heard it a million times before: breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Yet, if you are like many of my clients, your mornings are so rushed that you barely have time to gulp down a cup of coffee and grab a quick bite before running out the door. By 10am you’re starving or exhausted, and find yourself reaching for a quick snack like a bagel and coffee. You feel great until the coffee wears off, at which time you notice you’re craving another quick pick-me-up. A mediocre breakfast (or no breakfast at all) can lead to mindless snacking and cravings throughout the day, while a substantial breakfast can help stop this pattern in its tracks. It’s true: if we do not get enough of our nutrients (like fat, carbohydrates and protein) in the first half of our day, our bodies will make up for it later (think: those late night bowls of ice cream, or devouring the box of crackers while watching tv).

Read more

Gen Y Guide Podcast – Become a Food Detective With Your Child

Gen Y Guide Podcast – Become a Food Detective With Your Child

How is behaviour influenced by food? Your kids are what you feed them. How can food improve behaviour?

with Gen Y Guide Sarah Newton