Health Risks & Specific Foods to Avoid

About 25% of the people in America are considered obese, or overweight. However, this problem starts when they are young, and these health risks can be avoided. When you are your teens, it is important to get exercise everyday for about sixty minutes. Also, you should eat healthier, and choose the right foods. Even the simple changes will make a huge difference in the outcome. Switch to brown rice, wheat bread or whole grain foods. If possible, choose to shop for groceries at local markets where produce is local. This could all reduce the chances of being overweight when an adult.

High blood pressure is something that can be avoided when in your teen years. Although the cause of blood pressure isn't known, many factors play a role in having a high blood pressure. One way is to watch your diet. Salty foods and sodium is the major cause of high blood pressure when it comes to a diet and what you eat. There are ways of preventing high blood pressure. One ways is to visit your doctor regularly to check for this. Another is to get potassium into your system. It will help to control it and make sure it doesn't get too high.

Bones are an important part of a healthy body. When you get older, the disease osteoporosis can affect you if your bones are not strong or developed. In order to prevent this, you need to start in your childhood and teenage years. Calcium is the primary mineral that strengthens your growing bones. When you lack in calcium, your bones are weak and fragile. It also helps you keep your teeth healthy and blood flow clear. Many people lack calcium in their diets, and therefore have a higher chance of developing osteoporosis in the future. To add calcium to your diet, look towards eating more beans and dairy products. More importantly, try to drink milk at least twice a day in order to ensure your immunity from this disease.

Hemoglobin, a pigment that carries oxygen to tissues in the body, are crucial to a teen's overall health. It is produced by iron, a mineral that can be found in many of the foods that you eat. However, if you lack iron in your diet, or don't get enough, you have a high chance of getting iron-deficiency anemia, which is one of the world's most common nutritional deficiencies. When you lack iron, you lack hemoglobin, which is responsible of creating red blood cells for the body. When you lack these blood cells, cells and tissues don't get the required amount of oxygen needed thus, affecting their function. Adding iron to you diet (seafood and beans) bring the risk of getting iron-deficiency anemia down.

Another important aspect to being a healthy teen is knowing what is healthy to eat, but also what you need to try to avoid. All foods have something different about them, some are healthy and some aren't. Nutritious foods keep you very healthy, but limiting the unhealthy foods can help you to succeed. There are many foods that are considered to be unhealthy and each have their own reasons as to why they are. The main unhealthy food to avoid is ones that are fried. When your favorite foods like French fries, chicken and potato chips are fried, they soak up the grease, which turns into trans fats when it enters your body. Excess amounts of trans fats lead to heart disease. Fried foods also add lots of calories to the food. According to MindfulEats.com, French fries contain twice the amount of calories and fifty times the amount of (trans) fat than a baked potato does.

High fructose corn syrup. You heard it, but do you know what it is? High fructose corn syrup is found in most of the soft drinks on the market. They act as a substitute for sugar, which makes the drink taste so refreshing and sweet. An average person is said to "drink" 63 pounds of this brown goo every year through soft drinks and other foods and it ultimately ends up being the leading cause for obesity. It is also found in hamburger buns, some breads and muffins. In order to avoid this, check the nutrition label and read the ingredient list before eating or drinking. Keep this in mind and remember to think before you eat.

Another unhealthy eating habit is eating foods that are high in cholesterol. Almost all of the foods you eat during your meals probably contain cholesterol which is can be very dangerous if eaten in large quantities. Cholesterol can be found specifically in eggs, which we all know we love to eat. A lot of it can be found in fast food, because of the high amounts of sodium that fast food companies use to cook foods. Many of the top foods with cholesterol come from fast food joints like the McDonalds breakfast platter or even just a Dunkin Donuts Bagel. You should watch out for these foods, because these foods can influence how you end up looking and feeling in a healthy body.

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