Not on a junk spree

A walk through the food court of any mall confirms the worst reports about teens' eating habits: Children share overflowing cartons of french fries, bite into cheeseburgers and dripping slices of pizza and quench their thirst with jumbo cups of soda.

Stop and talk to teenagers and many say that they eat junk food mainly when they are out of their parents' eyesight, especially when they are with friends. They have learnt what it means to eat healthfully, they say, even though they often don't choose to do so.

Take 17-year-old Porscha Hall, a high school senior, who says she usually skips breakfast and has chips, cookies, candy and soda — from the school vending machines — for lunch. She often goes to a carry-out restaurant after school for french fries, fried rice and egg rolls. Dinner at home tends to be much healthier, she says, including baked chicken and rice.

Hall says she knows her mother would prefer that she eat healthier meals. But, she said: "I don't have time to eat healthy", because she attends school during the day and takes classes at night. She predicts that one day, probably when she is done with college, her food choices may matter more to her.

Hall admits that junk food is often the quickest way to satisfy her hunger when she is on the go — and that is common among busy teenagers, says Felicity Northcott, an anthropologist who does nutrition research at Johns Hopkins University.

"I am not sure that teenagers don't eat healthfully because they don't want to — particularly teens who are in school, where there is a lot of junk food around," Northcott says. "They just eat whatever is there."

Choice burden

The tension — between knowing what is bad for you and continuing to do it anyway — is an area of key challenge for all health professionals.

The effects of food choice on weight and, later, chronic diseases are well documented. A 2005 study in the journal Pediatrics found that children in the age group of 9 to 14 who ate more fried foods away from home tended to be heavier.

Findings published in 2004 in Obesity Research showed that, among children in the age group of 9 to 14, drinking sugared beverages may contribute to weight gain.

Children who talk about eating healthfully often say their good habits were established at home. Sajni Patel, a 10th-grader, says she is a big fresh-fruit eater — which is unusual, she admits, for a 15-year-old.

"I love citrus fruit, apples, nectarines, mango," Patel explains. "I come home around three and have a salad [and] vegetables" — choices she attributes to her parents' mealtime routines.

Rashida Ross, 16, a high school junior, admits she enjoys chips, cakes, candy and hot sausages — but her mother's rule of eating a salad with every meal sticks.

As teens prepare to leave home, their parents' influence declines, but it does not disappear.

Michael Kellogg, an 18-year-old high school senior, generally makes his own food selections, he says. But his parents' rules and routines still affect his food choices. "I guess 40 per cent is my choice and 60 per cent is I eat what they eat," Kellogg says.

"When I am on the go, I will stop and get fast food."
Other teens report sticking to healthy diets because they — and their peers — want to stay in shape.

That is the case for Samantha Boddy, 13, who loves dancing. She starts out with a smoothie in the morning and eats apples and whole-grain snack bars throughout the day.

"I have always eaten really healthy," said Boddy, attributing that comment to both her mother and to the strong influence dance has had on her.

If fellow students see a dancer eating a potato chip, she explains, "they will freak out and say, 'Do you know what that is doing to your body right now, as we are speaking?'"