Ensuring your teen is eating well
Stock your fridge with tubs of yogurt and your freezer with frozen yogurt and ice cream, ready for teens to grab when hunger strikes. Tuck individual servings of cheese, pudding, yogurt, or yogurt beverages into your teen's lunch bag.
Try the following ideas to increase your whole family's calcium intake:
• Begin the day with a fruit frappé or milkshake. Make it "to go" if your teen is running late for school.
• Add a slice of cheese to a lunch sandwich.
• For an after-school snack, have fruit and a yogurt dip.
• Make hot chocolate (with milk) on frosty days. Make milkshakes on hot days.
• Dilute condensed soups with milk, not water.
• Crown casseroles with a bubbly cheese topping.
• Grate cheese over salads.
• Pour cheese sauce over steamed broccoli or cauliflower.
• Serve quiche, cheese soufflé, and cheesy pasta dishes often.
• Add skim-milk powder to meat loaf, mashed potatoes, casseroles, and baked goods. Just 15 ml. (I tbsp.) of skim-milk powder contains 70 mg of calcium.
• Serve a cheese tray with crackers and apple and pear slices as dessert.
• Make a milk dessert -• pudding, tapioca, rice pudding, or baked custard.
• Use evaporated milk when baking. It has double the calcium of regular fresh milk.
Ironing out the differences
A diet that's low in iron can lead to decreased immune function, loss of energy, and a reduced capacity for learning. It can also lead to iron-deficiency anemia, which is characterized by a pale complexion, listlessness, and irritability. During adolescence, the incidence of iron deficiency decreases in boys but increases in girls. Girls can be low in iron because of dieting; eating inadequate amounts of meat, poultry, and fish; and increased iron losses due to menstruation. Experts offer widely different estimates on the percentage (from 29 to 84 per cent) of young Canadian women who don't meet the recommended nutrient intake (RNI) for iron.
Meat, fish, and poultry contain heme iron (from animal blood), which is more easily absorbed and used by the body than the iron in vegetables and grains. However, heme iron and vitamin C enhance the body's ability to absorb the iron in grains and vegetables.
To increase your family's iron intake:
• Pick whole-grain cereals and iron-fortified cereals. Read the nutrition panel on the label, and check the amount of iron (sometimes identified as ferrous sulfate listed; choose ones that also have fibre -• oatmeal is among the best.
• Choose whole-wheat breads to make school lunches.
• For an after-school snack, bake bran muffins chock full of raisins and dried apricots.
• Serve meat, fish, and poultry often.
• Add red kidney beans to casseroles.
Page 3 of 4 -- discover what your kids shouldn't be eating on page 4.
