What is a normal amount of junk food for teenagers

[Teaandbaklava]

I’ve always tried to encourage healthy eating habits in my DC aged 15 and 11. When they were younger that meant limiting things like chocolates, , sweets and cakes reserving them as occasional ‘treats’. All fine until they last few years, basically since my eldest started secondary. I’m too strict about this all according to him. Everybody else has chocolate bars, muffins, cookies etc every day, sometimes more!! Or so he says. ]I’ve tried to relax the rules a bit, allowing more treat food in the house. I do also appreciate that children/teenagers have different metabolism to adults and can consume way more than us without worrying about weight. I’m also conscious not to be too strict in case it encourages any ‘disordered eating’ iyswim. However I’m eager to know how much other teenagers consume to get an idea of what’s ‘normal’

[FakeMews]

Teenage boys have bottomless stomachs.
My approach was that as long as they are three proper healthy meals a day they could eat junk as well. So I always had cakes, biscuits, flap jack's, bread for toast, crumpets etc in the house.
Both skinny adults now with healthy eating habits.

[10thingsIhateAboutTheDailyMail]

My 15 yr old eats junk food daily. He also eats a cooked meal at school, and again in the evening. Typical day:

Breakfast: cup of tea
First Break: bacon roll or pizza
Lunch break: main meal and donut/brownie/fruit pot
After school snack: crisps or biscuits, (home made)smoothie or milk
Dinner: normal home cooked meal.including veg/salad, drink: milk
Snacks: pot noodle or choc bar or crackers and cheese and milk

I give him pretty much free reign as long as he eats normal food for the main meals.

[ragged]

hahahahahahaha

We're you never a teen yourself, OP?

We aim for a healthy balanced meal in the evening. A reasonable (starchy) breakfast. A small reasonable (starchy) lunch. They pad all that out with junk.

DD likes grapes. DS likes cashews. They count as health food, now!

[Teaandbaklava]

Thanks for responses, that’s helpful
Yes, of course I had junk myself as a teen! But there does seem to be so much more access to junk food these days than what I remember. Starbucks and Costa on every corner.....I think there is more of a ‘junk food culture’ now
Anyway it’s helpful to know that the ‘2-3 good meals a day padded out with whatever they fancy’ approach is what others are doing. Makes sense. Too much control definitely not a good thing! It is so different to when they were younger....am adapting my approach fast!

[EveryoneTalkAboutPopMusic]

School Dinners at our local High School are truly shocking. DS seems to have a slice of Pizza and a chocolate brownie most days. I do try and make sure there’s things like a full fruit bowl and fruit bread or malt loaf for them to fill up on.

I just try to steer them in the right direction when they’re home. It doesn’t help that the youngest seems to be running some sort of amateur bakery from the kitchen. She walked in with a Victoria sponge at tea time and they’ve demolished half of it already!

[EveryoneTalkAboutPopMusic]

Sorry x-posted with you there OP

[JesusInTheCabbageVan]

I used to have three meals a day, plus two sandwiches (one a crisp sandwich made with a grab bag of Walkers) and sometimes chips in the evening. I was rake thin

[saoirse31]

Some of meals above sound like an awful amt of junk food tbh. Wouldn't be concetned re what u eat outside of house but wouldn't have loads of crap inside house. Its not about put to g on weight or not its about lifetime health. You can fill up on healthy foods as easily as on crap.

[10thingsIhateAboutTheDailyMail]

Saoirse, what healthy snacks do.your teenagers fill up on?

[moochypooch]

I don't buy junk food - they get pocket money and they buy whatever they want. They try to limit sugar though because they get less spots when they eat less sugar (and dairy).

[claraschu]

A different side to this...my teens never ate much junk food. Occasional packs of crisps, occasional chocolate, some cakes and ice cream at home, but not large quantities and not every day.

They ate vast amounts of other food though, and were certainly enjoyed their food- they just really enjoyed healthy food, and I take a lot of trouble to have lots of tasty healthy food at home (they also took packed lunches to school). We are all vegetarian and I accepted that I would have to take some time and trouble to make sure that their diet was fun, tasty, fresh, varied, etc.

I think that teenagers enjoy food and are hungry creatures, so if there is its of healthy food around, they enjoy that...

[FakeMews]

I don't get too hung up teenagers about eating junk food. As I said earlier, mine ate healthy meals but also what some would call junk for snacks. I would have worried if they were an unhealthy weight but both were tall skinny boys. I made sure they understood what was needed in a healthy diet and that they wouldn't be able to sustain eating the sheer quantity of food once they stopped growing.

The thing is it's a temporary phase, usually coinciding with huge growth and puberty. Once they reached about 18 their appetites returned to normal adult levels. They will now eat the odd muffin or bag of crisps but only occasionally less than me