You wouldn’t think that your teenager would have this problem, being that they are young and probably fit and do lots of exercises at school. That could be one of the reasons why this is not a well discussed topic, but it is very common. Teenagers are under a lot us stress to perform at school through exams and also at home with helping out your parents, doing chores etc. They also have to contend with growing up pains, like hormones and teenage spots, just to name a few.
So the question is, Is this problem down to lifestyle?
If so, what do we need to change it?
We know we are adding more pressure in our life by eating the wrong foods for our bodies. Our bodies let us know by giving us symptoms to notify us that we need to do something now!
The best thing that we can do, which can be done gradually, is change our eating habits. We know that we don’t always eat the right types of food and we are not saying that you can’t eat the ‘wrong’ types of foods, but you have to be able to balance both types of food so that you are getting the nutrients that you need for your internal organs to work properly and also to give you the energy that you need to carry out your everyday things. So you could start by introducing more whole grains into your diet.
Whole grains, such as shredded wheat, weetabix, brown rice, corn and oats. Eating more whole grain will not only give you more fibre and energy, it also helps to keep your heart healthy, which in turn reduces blood pressure.
Experts recommend eating whole grain three times a day. One serving of whole grain will consist of approximately 16grams which is about 2 tablespoons of brown rice or 1 slice of wholemeal bread.
While you are increasing your intake of whole grain, try to reduce your intake of white flour products, like white bread, cakes, biscuits etc. To produce white flour products the whole grain has been refined and stripped of its nutrients and we seem to eat more of the refined grain than the natural grain and this is causing us to get ill.
Making the changes from ‘refined’ grain to whole grain can be easier than you think. For example:, If you normally have toast for breakfast with white bread, change your bread to wholemeal instead. If you are used to eating white rice, change to brown rice instead. This is one of the easiest ways to change your diet is when you can replace something that you already eat with a more wholesome one.
Another thing that we can reduce is our salt intake. Salt is one of the major contributors of high blood pressure in teenagers as well as adults as salt is disguised or hidden in so many different products, especially in the fast food industry, restaurant and ready meals industry.
This in itself can be trick to deal with. Sometime the only way to deal with this at the moment would be to stay away from fast food establishments and restaurants as these two seem to be the main culprits of ‘hidden’ salts. The ready meals industry should be easier for you to recognize as you will be able to check the ingredients on the products before you actually purchase them.
These are just a few minor changes that you could do to reduce this silent killer that can be implemented straight away to start feeling a whole lot better.
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