Parenting teenagers is full of challenges and fun and there will be highs and lows during the teen years. The fridge will often be raided and you will hear cries of ‘there is nothing to eat’. Teenagers need a varied diet for their health and wellbeing, plus they keep growing! In this post, I am sharing the healthy snacks for teenagers that my two regularly enjoy.
Normal eating patterns for teenagers include almost anything in varying amounts. They will go through faddy phases, growing phases and barely eating anything phases. Therefore knowing what healthy snacks for teenagers to have at home is useful knowledge and can help prepare you for life with hungry teenagers.
The teenage years are key for experimentation, and this includes food. Many teenagers will try new things like sushi at this age. Teens might also become more interested in cooking and begin to learn how to cook independently. This is really important in preparation for university. I have also written that cooking is a good life skill to learn, read more on 30+ things for teenagers to do in lockdown.
Known as the “set point,” teenagers without eating disorders will eat more or less as their body tells them; it is a peculiarity of ones’ genes, an inherited trait. As long as normal eating is pursued, the setpoint will do its job. If normal eating patterns turn abnormal, over time, the setpoint will fail to work, as the body’s regulatory system tries to compensate for the increase or lack of food substances.
Food Guide
Generally, three balanced meals a day with a couple of healthy snacks is the guide with all food groups included:
Grains (5-12 servings a day);
Vegetables and fruits (5-10 servings a day);
Dairy (3-4 servings a day); and,
Meat and alternatives (2-3 servings a day). There are six groups of nutrients: carbohydrates, fats, protein, water, vitamins, and minerals. Each has its own function, and all are needed to maintain good health.
Healthy Eating Attitudes
For a child/teenager to develop healthy eating attitudes, the role modeling behavior of parents is crucial. If parents’ lifestyles embody severe dieting plans and critical assessments of physical attributes, there is a greater risk that the children in the family may develop an unhealthy attitude towards eating, ultimately giving permission for an eating disorder to develop.
However, if the parent’s role model flexible eating patterns and place value on the internal person rather than the external person, the likelihood of an eating disorder to develop is decreased.
Solid parental role modeling for children gives them the guidelines they will internalize as they mature. Of course, this is just one aspect of parental role modeling.
The best way to encourage teenagers to have a comfortable relationship with food is to eat with them as much as possible and teach them simple nutritional knowledge as well as cooking skills.
Teenage Girls and Boys
Girls’ bodies throughout their teenage years will be adding on fat. It is necessary for health. Boys will be increasing blood supply and muscle mass. You can read about puberty and boys in my post my honest thoughts on having a manchild. Satisfying amounts of healthy foods are absolutely necessary during this time period for both genders.
This is an especially crucial time period for growing bone mass. Scrimping on needed calcium can result in developing osteoporosis (bone loss), later in life.
Structured Meals Recovering From Eating Disorder(s)
Teenagers recovering from an eating disorder, especially if the condition has continued for a period of time, may have upset their own regulatory system. That is, their bodies may not tell them when they are hungry or satisfied with eating. Additionally, they may have forgotten what normal eating is. Since a teenager’s eating patterns can be erratic, to begin with, it will take the structure to help a recovering teenager learn how to eat again.
This structure is relatively basic:
Sticking to a timely structure, such as three meals and a couple of snacks a day;
Eating at a set time with the family;
Prohibit calorie counting;
Prohibit scales;
Prohibit diet products;
Choose nutritious foods as well as enjoyable foods;
Change attitudes, that is, not identifying foods as allowed and prohibited, but identifying eating behaviors as allowed and too restrictive;
Increase food choices slowly, not all at once; and,
Allow for setbacks and slip-ups.Finally, for parents and teenagers, it is important to accept that there is no one weight for all teenagers. Appropriate weight is determined by the size and shape of the body. If there are questions, probably best to make an appointment with the family physician.
Healthy Snacks For Teenagers: Our go to snacks!
- Firstly my teenagers want healthy snacks in the cupboard, this includes the Creative Nature snacks we recently reviewed.
- Protein balls, my teenagers are very active and want to have a high protein diet. Protein balls are a yummy snack but are quite expensive in health food shops. My teenager makes her own peanut protein balls following this recipe.
- Rice cakes topped with peanut butter and or banana are another firm favourite in our house.
- Protein Pancakes, we make ours with two eggs, a ripe banana and scoop of protein powder. Delicious!
- Nuts. Cashew nuts are a firm favourite.
- Homemade egg muffins, these are great to batch cook and have in the fridge for a quick snack. You can add so many different leftovers too like chives, pieces of ham etc. This recipe from A Mummy Too is very easy.
- These homemade roll up pizzas are healthy
- Veggie sticks, carrots, cucumbers, pepper. We enjoy crunchy veggies with a hummus dip. I tend to cheat with shop-bought hummus as usually on offer in the supermarkets!
- Fruit salad ready prepared is a quick snack. Chop up seasonal fruits and have a bowl always on hand.
- Frozen lollies but again you can make these at home with fruits. We like the 12 featured in Healthy Magazine. You will just need a lolly mould like this one from Amazon.
- If your teenagers eat a lot of bread, buy wholegrain which is healthier than white.
- Wraps or pitta breads are less dense than bread and a healthier option. A little nut butter or peanut butter is a good topping.
- If crisps are a favourite, then switch to vegetable crisps or make your own from slices of fruit or veggies.
- Popcorn is a good alternative to crisps too.
- Oatmeal cookies are better than sugary biscuits!
Fruit Smoothies
There is nothing as tasty and nutritious as freshly made healthy fruit smoothies. It is really easy to make a quick fruit smoothie drink by blitzing up some of your favorite fruits in a blender. To really make the most of the vitamins and goodness, drink the smoothie as soon as it’s prepared. Find out more information on how to make smoothies and some tasty recipes in this article.
Berry Combo
This smoothie is great for providing energy and a big boost to your immune system. It also has plenty of vitamins in it to really help your skin glow. Use one handful of each of the following berries: Raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries. Other types of berries are also great for this smoothie. Blitz all the berries with 120 ml of apple juice and it’s ready to drink.
Zingy Melon
The fruits in the following recipe are great for boosting your digestion and complexion. They also provide plenty of energy and a lot of vital support for the immune system. Roughly chop half a melon and half a pineapple and place in the blender. Grate in a piece of ginger around a quarter of an inch long (half a centimeter), then blend well. This smoothie has a real kick to it, and the flavors of the individual fruits go together so well to create something not only tasty but really healthy too.
Green Banana
This smoothie is rich in vitamin C and contains fruits that are great for helping the body to detox. It’s a good all-round smoothie for providing a lot of energy and really aids the immune system and digestion. To make this smoothie, blend together two bananas, two kiwi fruits and a handful of red seedless grapes with 150 ml apple juice. The kiwi fruits turn the whole thing bright green and provide a nice tangy flavor.
Creamy Mango and Passion Fruit
For something a little different, try a smoothie with some natural yogurt in it, with just as much natural goodness as an all-fruit smoothie but with a creamier taste and the addition of a source of protein. To make this smoothie, blend together two mangoes, two tangerines, and two passion fruits, with five tablespoons (75 ml) of natural yogurt and 120 ml of pineapple juice. This is the perfect balance of smooth fruit, citrus tang, and creamy yogurt, and provides a great boost of energy.
We hope you like our healthy snacks for teenagers and I’d love to add anymore favourites. So do let me know what your teenagers like to snack on.
