Teens eat well … not! - adolescents do not have healthy diets

American Demographics, March, 1998 by Marcia Mogelonsky

Adolescents aged of 13 to 18 don't eat enough vitamins, minerals, and dietary fiber, and they eat too much fat and saturated fat. This may not be a surprise to most parents, but a new study from the U.S. Department of Agriculture suggests that teenagers' poor diets may put them at risk for health problems later in life.

Teenagers require more calcium, iron, and energy than any other age group, but teenage girls do not meet the recommended dietary allowances for calcium, iron, magnesium, and zinc. Teenage boys, who eat more food than their female counterparts overall, are still likely to be deficient in calcium and dietary fiber.

What they lack in vitamin and mineral consumption, many teens make up in fat and saturated fat. The combination of high-fat diets and sedentary lifestyles of adolescents who prefer sports viewing to sports participation may be the root of the growing share of teens who are overweight.

One reason teens lack so many of the nutrients they need is that they often skip meals. Young women are more likely to skip breakfast than young men, and both groups tend to skip lunch. They make up for it by snacking, however. The majority of teens eat snacks, and the likelihood is slim that these snack foods make up the nutritional value of the meals missed.

Teens do consume adequate amounts of vitamin C, despite a lack of citrus fruits and juices in their diets. That's because two of their favorite foods--potatoes (French fries) and tomato sauce (on pizza)--are vitamin C-rich. If manufacturers could just enrich pizzas with more calcium, fiber, and magnesium, parents would have nothing to worry about.

For more information, see "Nutrient Intakes and Eating Patterns of Teenagers," by Elyse Levine and Joanne F. Guthrie from the USDA's Family Economics and Nutrition Review, 1997, Vol. 10, No. 3, available by calling (202) 418-2312.