When I was just starting out with children I got some advice from an unlikely source—none other than G. Gordon Liddy. The father of four and grandfather told his children: “You don’t bow to peer pressure, you ARE peer pressure!  He continued, “You can raise your children to be sharks or minnows. If they want to follow the pack there might be safety in numbers, but the threat of being eaten rules your life. Why not worry about finding something to eat instead?  Being eaten is sure death but dying of starvation is in your control”. 

This applies to all teenage behavior, and most assuredly diet and nutrition. Teenagers are surrounded by peers who will laugh, even ridicule them, for choosing healthy foods and taking supplements. Tips to counteract this are best started young, when you’re molding your child. But it’s never too late.

1.) Your house might be a bad place to hang out because “there’s nothing to eat." That’s fine—the first rule of teenage eating is QUIT COSTCO SHOPPING!  Unless you’re a family over six, you don’t belong there. If you buy 45 granola bars for the price of 28, guess what? All 45 get eaten just as fast!  LOOK in the mirror:  why are you buying three-pound bags of M&M’s and two-gallon buckets of ice cream? You’re doing it to feed your own habit, and you’re teaching your kids to eat endlessly, mindlessly, and unhealthily. 

2.) All meals have fruit and/or vegetables, no exceptions. Fresh fruit, salads, coleslaw, grilled squash, corn—produce should TOP your grocery bill.  If they won’t eat anything but fresh pineapple or raspberries, fine—buy them (you’ll have M&M money to spend anyhow).  If you can’t cook, let your teenager learn—they can be awesome and may even find a career.

3.) If you want to play sports, you take supplements and eat protein. My teenagers swim competitively and play lacrosse year-round, as well as play “fun” sports: skiing, snowboarding, surfing, wake boarding, etc. They use 2,000 mg C, 2000 i.u. D in fall/winter, 1000 mg calcium, 500 mg magnesium, 400 mcg chromium picolinate, 3 grams L-carnitine, 2 grams high DHA fish oil, multivitamin. Also, Horizon’s DHA added milk is a great product we use daily. When your kids don’t miss practice, games or school due to illness/injury, and excel in their sport, they will believe. And when they believe, they become the shark and turn it around on their teammates: “Well I made the All-Star team because my mom gave me custom supplements and yours didn’t care enough.”

It may not always be nice. Then again, neither are sharks.