Nutrition and Fitness

• Nutrition
• Exercise and Sports -- Lets Get Physical
• Getting Started

Nutrition

Dieting is a great way to lose weight fast, but can often lead to over-indulging later on. So how can you eat healthier? The answer to this: create healthy eating habits. Dieting lasts only for a short period of time, while habits can last a lifetime. As a teen, building eating habits now can really help in the future.

As your body continues to grow, it is important to take care of it and fuel it with nutritious food so that it may develop to its potential. Whether you are an athlete, musician, avid reader, or video game expert, your body needs healthy food to achieve top performance.

• Sugar and Other Sweeteners
  
• Carbohydrates


• Why eat smart?
  
• Clickable Food Pyramid
  
• Healthy Snacking
  
• Female Nutrition
  
• Vegetarianism in Teens

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Exercise and Sports -- Lets Get Physical

Proper exercise is an important part of becoming a healthy adult. You can't expect to be a couch potato and feel good both mentally and physically as a teen. That means cutting back on watching TV, playing video games or surfing the Net, in order to get out and work your body.

A 1997 survey conducted by the YRBS concluded:

• 63.8 percent of students had participated in activities that made them sweat and breathe hard for at least 20 minutes for three of the past seven days.
  
• Male students (72.3 percent) were significantly more likely than female students (53.5 percent) to have participated in vigorous physical activity.
  
• Male students (55.5 percent) were significantly more likely than female students (42.3 percent) to have played on sports teams run by their school.
  
• Male students (45.4 percent) were significantly more likely than female students (29.8 percent) to have played on sports teams run by organizations unaffiliated with their school.

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Getting Started

• Why should I exercise?
  
• Keys to Exercising Successfully

Last reviewed November 2012
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