Sabrina’s New Food Menu

To promote growth, a healthy weight and overall good health for sports,
teens like you need to eat a balanced diet that includes a variety of foods from
all the food groups, including grains, fruits, vegetables, lean proteins and low-fat
dairy from the Canadian Food Guide. On-the-go this sounds great, but getting
your diet right can be a challenge. I understand you don’t have time to eat
proper food and that fast food is helping you get energy for playing sports,
however, daily eating fast food is a hazard. Junky food all the time during
basketball season can cause you health problems such as heart disease,
diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity. Even if you are not active, fast foods
can still cause harm. Keep in mind that those fast foods help you save time and
money at the expense of your health. If not consumed in moderation, they can
lead to health risks which include fatigue, obesity and lack of energy. These
foods also contain little amount of proteins, vitamins and minerals. You should
know that higher intake of fat and sugar leads to decreased intake of healthy
food choices. High level of saturated or trans fats and salt found in fried fast
foods can clog the arteries and, over time, contribute to 2 types of diabetes.
Junk food doesn't contain the protein or complex carbohydrates that your body
needs to maintain consistent blood sugar levels so your blood sugar levels will
immediately spike and then drop suddenly soon after eating. This is a critical
problem for playing sports such as basketball, hockey, volleyball and soccer
because with foods potentially causing food health problems. It will be
extremely painful to play these games and maybe you wouldn’t be able to.
Furthermore, with health problems your coaches will have no choice but to
keep you off of your teams, leaving you unhappy because you can’t enjoy being
active. I strongly believe you should quit fast food eating habits and
immediately resort to healthy food.
Planning a weekly menu may help. To make the planning a little easier and
foster better eating habits, work with your parents when planning the menu.
Getting you to eat the right food is almost impossible. However, growing girls
need more than just some food and water for sustenance. They need a
complete diet that gives them the nutrition they need to grow into healthy and
strong young women. Here is a menu or schedule you should try to keep in
mind when formulating a diet plan, but first I am going to compare this new
healthy schedule with your original food schedule. I first know you eat a lot of
fast food, so I assume you would eat a burger. But, did you know that a Big Mac
has 520 calories, 28g fat, 45g carbohydrates! That is too much! Say you add in a
side of medium fries has 350 calories, 17g fat, 46g carbohydrates; a medium
coke has 220 calories, 0g fat, 46g carbohydrates; and maybe a dessert such as a
hot fudge sundae which has 340 calories, 10g fat, 55g carbohydrates. That totals
1430 calories, 55g fat and 202g carbohydrates! Constantly eating these foods as
your meals will cause harm towards you.

Mid-Morning Snack: 10:00 a.m.

 1/2 cup fresh mixed fruit cup (45 Calories, 0g Fat, 11g Carbs)
 1/2 cup low-fat cottage cheese (81.5 Calories, 1.15g Fat, 3.05g
Carbs)
 A glass of water
 Celery (1 Calorie, 0.1g Fat, 0.1g Carbs)
 Apple (53 Calories, 0.2g Fat, 14.1g Carbs)

Lunch: 12:30 p.m.

 Grilled chicken breast (220 Calories, 10g Fat, 3g Carbs)
 1/2 cup Spinach (1 Calorie, 0.1g Fat, 0.2g Carbs)
 Medium baked potato (160 Calories, 0g Fat, 37g Carbs)
 A glass of milk and water

Pre-Practice: (45 minutes before practice)

For optimum energy levels, consume a small snack no less than 45
minutes before practice; for example, one of the following:

 A glass of water
 1 slice Whole wheat bread (60 Calories, 0.8g Fat, 11.5g Carbs)
 a glass of Gatorade (53 Calories, 0g Fat, 14g Carbs)
 Banana (48 Calories, 0.2g Fat, 12.4g Carbs)
Dinner: 7:00 p.m.
 Grilled salmon (304 Calories, 19g Fat, 0.4g Carbs)
 1 cup Steamed broccoli (90 Calories, 8g Fat, 6g Carbs)
 A glass of water

Before Bedtime 10:30 p.m.

 A glass of low-fat milk (100 Calories, 2.5g Fat, 12g Carbs)

Based on the Canada Food Guide, for each food group, an average
teenage girl requires 7 servings of vegetables and fruits, 6 servings of grain
products, 3-4 servings of dairy products and 2 servings of meat and alternatives
along with 2,200 to 2,400 calories, 55 to 75 grams of fat and 225 to 325 grams of
carbs per day for someone like you who is active in sports. In total, your new
schedule does have just enough calories: 2,433 calories, 54.25 grams of fat and
249.5 grams of carbs along with 7 servings of vegetables and fruits, 1 serving of
grain products, 3-4 servings of dairy products and 2 servings of meat and
alternatives. Everything on this new healthy food menu schedule is good for
you. The only thing you need to worry about is your servings of grain products
and grams of fats. If you consider, you can change the schedule and add or take
off any foods you want so that you meet the daily required Canada Food Guide
recommendations for each food group for servings, grams of fats, carbs and
calories. Changing your meal as required will help you with sustaining a healthy
life style.