Teen Health Article

Great Tips!

B.B. From Improving Health and Engery has given us some great advice and tips here .. Our thanks to B.B. for this great article!

Teen Health

Lookin' Good, Feelin' Good!

What makes a teen a teen? Well, of course, your age is in the "teens," but the fact that you are growing and changing physically at the speed of light is the "trademark" of a teen, at least physically! Did you know that the word "adolescence" means "developing from childhood to maturity, growing up?"

Having a body that is going through so many changes brings a lot of challenges, physically and emotionally. Is there anything you can do to smooth out the bumps a bit and have some control over what's happening?

Yes! Although your doctor can help you handle short term health problems, like a broken bone or an ear infection, staying healthy and feeling good physically are based on your decisions and are under your control!

There are three key aspects to good health. When you know what they are, you can use them to take care of your body and attain true, natural beauty and physical wellness.

The three components of good health are:

1. Good nutrition 2. Regular physical activity 3. Sleep

1. Good nutrition

The first ingredient for a healthy body is good nutrition. Good nutrition means eating stuff that helps your body work right. Because your body is growing and changing, it needs extra energy and nutrients to help it do all that work!

Good nutrition is made up of a. carbohydrates b. protein c. fats d. water.

a. Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates provide the main source of energy for your body. Sugar is one type of carbohydrate, which is why you might crave sugary stuff - because it gives you energy very fast - and your growing body needs a lot of energy.

Unfortunately, sugar that is in processed and refined foods, like in Twinkies and doughnuts, has almost zero nutrients so it doesn't help your body much. Eating a lot of refined carbohydrates will cause your energy levels to go really high and then really low, like a roller coaster!

Your body needs a consistent flow of fuel. You get this from eating "good" carbohydrates and some fats (more to come!)

"Good" carbohydrates include fruits and veggies, grains (like wheat and oats) and pastas. Eating fresh fruits, fresh veggies, whole grain breads, and yeah, pasta like spaghetti and lasagna is healthy. You won't "get fat" from eating these - your body must have them to run right. Just like a car needs gas to run, your body needs carbohydrates to provide energy.

b. Protein

Protein is what your body needs to build and repair itself. It is a part of every cell in your body. When you eat food with protein, it breaks down during digestion into what's called amino acids. Amino acids are then made into several different things that your body needs to work, like hormones and enzymes.

Protein comes from meat, fish, poultry, eggs, dairy products, beans and nuts as well as from a variety of grains and seeds. Protein will not "make you fat" either.

c. Fats

Believe it or not, your body also requires fats to operate! Fat is the other source of energy in the food that you eat, along with carbohydrates. Fats are one of the building blocks of all the cells in your body. Fat is "concentrated energy" so it has twice the calories as the same amount of carbohydrate. So a little goes a long way.

Fats come from plant and animal foods. Meats, whole-milk dairy products - like cheese and ice cream - are from animal foods.

Olives and olive oil, cashews, almonds, peanuts, most other nuts and avocados, as well as sunflower, corn, flax seed, soybean oils and certain kinds of fish like salmon or tuna are sources of very healthy fats.

d. Water

We don't often think of water as a nutrient - but it is because without it, we would not physically survive. It's about as important as the air we breathe. All of our body's functions and processes use water. We need to replace the water that is used on a daily basis, which is about 8 cups a day or more. The water in sodas, coffee or other drinks doesn't count because their chemical composition, what they are made of, acts differently in the body than water itself.

Water moves nutrients through your body to the cells where they are used for energy, building and repair. You need water for digestion and every other body function. Water is also required to "burn" fat and is vital for weight management.

If you don't drink at least 8 cups of water daily, work on increasing it little by little. Make it a game for you and your friends. I have a 20 ounce bottle and my goal is to fill it up at least 3 times daily with filtered water and sip on it throughout the day.

2. Regular physical activity

Our bodies developed thousands of years ago when there weren't computers or TV or desks to sit at all day. The "classroom" was outside and involved learning how to live life successfully by solving the problems of food, shelter and raising a family. That meant a lot of physical activity!

Regular physical activity helps your body work its best. It will help you to burn extra energy, it will strengthen your growing muscles and it will help you sleep better at night. It will help tremendously with smoothing out the roller-coaster of emotions that come with all this body maturing.

If you're involved in a sport already, good! If you need to work on getting some regular, consistent physical activity, get creative and have fun. What do you like? Rollerblading, dancing, bike riding, and yeah, regular walking are all great ways to get regular physical activity. Vary your activities, things that you really enjoy.

3. Sleep

Getting enough sleep is the third ingredient in your health recipe. Your body needs much more rest now due to all of its growing and building and maturing. It's totally "normal" for you to want to sleep a lot - your body needs it! Getting good nutrition and some regular physical exercise will help you to sleep even better. Getting plenty of sleep will also help smooth out some of the emotional bumps you're going through.

TEEN HEALTH TIP #1: Weight gain

Since your body is growing at a nuclear pace, it needs a lot of fuel, energy and rest to support it. Getting good nutrition, regular physical activity and plenty of rest go a very long way to helping it.

But did you know that as part of this process, your body, especially if you're a girl, is programmed to store some extra fat for the energy it needs to develop? So it's normal at this time of your life - it is not particularly what you eat that is causing that "extra" weight. It is your body getting ready to blossom into maturity. It is temporary! If you focus on getting good nutrition, some regular physical activity and getting enough rest, you will come through it looking and feeling great!

In general, weight gain occurs when you take in more calories (a measurement of energy) than you use. It helps to know that everything that your body does, breathing and digesting and all that, takes energy - it burns calories. So why doesn't starving yourself work? Because when you don't give your body the nutrients it needs, it goes into conserve mode. It will hold on to any stores of energy (fat) that you have and won't let go.

One thing that influences weight is the amount of fluid in your body. If you drink less water than your body needs to function, it will "hold onto" the water because it's not getting enough. The right answer is to drink enough water so that your body doesn't have to try and hold on to it.

Sodium, which is found in table salt and in many processed foods, especially canned and frozen foods, absorbs and holds water. Your body needs a small amount of sodium - but the amounts in the foods we consume can be astronomical! This is a cause of daily weight changes - the amount of fluid in your body changes from day to day. If you have eaten stuff that contains a lot of sodium, you can bet you will be "retaining fluid" soon afterwards. Eating lots of fresh fruit and veggies, drinking plenty of filtered water and getting regular exercise are your best bets to managing your health and your weight.

TEEN HEALTH TIP #2: Breakouts!

Pimples, zits, acne, I call them "zorches" - but whatever you call them, they're sure not wanted! Why do we tend to get a lot of them when we are teens? Well, part of this growing up phase includes extra oil production. And that can lead to clogged skin pores that can get infected and that is the cause of zorches - infected, clogged skin pores.

Washing your skin daily to keep your pores clear will help you manage this situation. Use a good soap that helps dissolve excess skin oil.

Here's to your health and happiness!

B.B. Martin Editor www.improving-health-and-energy.com

Copyright 2007 B.B. Martin

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