Nutrition for Teens

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The Effect of Eating Sugar Free!

After about one week, I felt I had more energy. I was more able to participate in school and could do more at the gym. I did have some cravings, but those could be staved off by will-power and some sweet-sugar free treats (see my peanut butter banana cookie recipe). By the end of the month, I could certainly tell the difference in my energy and mood. My skin has also been having less breakouts, although I’m not entirely sure it’s related. Life without sugar crashes has been great!

[nutritionforteens]

Keeping a Routine!

I found that eating the same thing every day is the simplest way to always be prepared. I was able to find a few simple to prepare food items that I could enjoy every day, or every few days! For instance, I almost always had sugar-free peanut butter on whole grain toast for breakfast every morning. I usually had either a turkey sandwich or a tuna sandwich for lunch, and stuck to fruit, veggies, cheese sticks, and sugar-free granola bars for snacks. This way, it was easy for me to put my meals for the day together in the limited time I have in the morning before school! 

[nutritionforteens]

Sugar free eating!

Hello! For the past month, I have been eating sugar free. I chose to narrow down my focus to simply eliminating sugar instead of gluten because I never felt I had problems with gluten in the past. I also thought that with a slightly leas drastic change in my diet, it would be more easy for me to maintain. Over the next few days, I will be posting about how sugar-free eating has improved my overall quality of life, and about the delicious things that are sugar-free. *By sugar free, I mean no additive sugars. This means sugar would not be listed as an ingredient in the food, although there may be natural sugars as there are in many fruits, nuts, and grains.

[nutritionforteens]

Gluten-Free Meatballs

Most meatball recipes call for bread crumbs, which obviously contain gluten. This crockpot recipe at elegantlyglutenfree.com/easy-meatballs calls for almond meal, and parmesan cheese instead. I ate these meatballs on a sandwich with gluten-free whole grain bread I purchased from a gluten-free bakery, as well a sugar free pasta sauce. These meatballs were truly delicious and I will make them again!

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Chocolate Chip-Banana Cookies

I used this recipe http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=2824582 to make these cookies. You have to make sure that the ingredients you buy are free of added sugars (lots of peanut butter, apple sauce, and chocolate chips contain added sugar). They're not the best cookies in the world, but they can satisfy a sweet tooth.

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Cauliflower Crust Pizza!

For this, I used Recipe Girl's recipe for the cauliflower crust (http://www.recipegirl.com/2012/01/16/cauliflower-crust-hawaiian-pizza/), and made a simple spinach pizza. I used a sugar-free sauce (Culinary Circle tomato and basil pasta sauce), a low fat mozzarella cheese and organic baby spinach. I thought it tasted delicious but it wasn't really a pizza; I had to eat it with a fork and knife because the crust isn't stiff and crusty enough to pick up. 

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recently I've been eating gluten-free and sugar-free! I have had more energy and have been feeling generally better! I'll be posting some recipes within the next few days!

[nutritionforteens]

the importance of going to the doctor!

Yesterday, I went to the pediatrician's for a regular physical as well as some blood work, just to get a baseline for my senior project, so that I can see how my health improves once three months are over. Today I was informed that I am severely anemic, meaning I am very low in iron. This explains many things: it is why I am so tired all of the time, why my hands and feet are always cold, why I often get really bad headaches, and why I sometimes feel dizzy and short of breath. The treatment for anemia is simple: iron supplements. I'll start taking them immediately but it'll be a little while before I start feeling better. I always felt as if my consistent fatigue wasn't normal and I am really looking forward to having more energy to do everything I need to do on a daily basis! Hopefully, once my iron levels rise, I'll be able to make it to the gym more often.

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Help for Building Meals!

While doing some research for my senior project, I found the Healthy Eating Pyramid and the Healthy Eating Plate, which are basically improved, more specific versions of MyPyramid and MyPlate. You might remember MyPyramid and MyPlate from middle school Foods&Nutrition class! They are symbols created by the US Department of Agriculture in order to help educate the public about what to eat. The problem is that the USDA has to take the food industry into consideration and so has some other interests besides educating the public. Because of this, those symbols are kind of vague, and not very helpful. Nutrition experts at the Harvard School of Public Health created the Healthy Eating Pyramid and the Healthy Eating Plate to solve this problem. These symbols provide a lot of information about what to eat on a day to day basis and can be very helpful when you're trying to build a meal!

Enjoy! Here's a link to the article I read: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/pyramid-full-story/

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New Favorite Snack!

I, as an ordinary teenage girl, love cheese! I love pizza, and nachos, and cheese fries. Today, I tried fresh mozzarella with tomato as a a healthy alternative to those cheesy snacks, and I have to say, it was absolutely delicious!