Should healthy teens be counting calories?

VUA21

It depends.

Like pretty much anything else, counting calories can be good or can be abused.

Also, "teens" is a huge difference from top to bottom. A 13 year old worries about appearance - probably not a good idea. A 19 year old university athlete - usually a good idea, I know a lot of 17-19 yr old athletes (I'm going back to school so I'm surrounded by them) that calorie count to make sure they are either eating enough for a proper bulk, or restricting a proper amount to cut while maintaining muscle mass.

ExistingFish

aokoye wrote: »

ExistingFish wrote: »

aokoye wrote: »

Kids learn about all sorts of things without actually doing them. Paying taxes and the creation of laws easily come to mind.
Somehow I think teaching and telling kids in a middle or high school health class to count calories would be a recipe for disaster. There's no knowing whether or not these kids already are clearly predisposed to an eating disorder, already have an eating disorder, etc. Moreover, what does removing the "unhealthy" children do and who going to accurately be able to say what kid is or isn't healthy?

I learned about creating laws in high school, by creating laws. We had a mock house and senate, formed committees, wrote bills, voted on them....it wasn't an abstract concept. We even met in the state capitol for it.

Kids pay sales tax any time they buy something. More kids should learn how to fill out tax forms, I cringe when I see some poor kid paying a tax preparer $40 to fill out a 1040 EZ for a kid with two w-2s and nothing else.

I did none of that, including the sales tax bit (I grew up in a state that doesn't have sales tax) and yet still know how all of things things work. I would venture that's the same for quite a number of people (with the sales tax part not being applicable to everyone). In terms of abstract concepts, children need to learn how to think abstractly. Heck, people in general need to learn how to think abstractly.

All that said, it's clear that we're not going to convince each other.

Probably true.

I think healthy children deserve enough respect to assume they can learn about and practice calorie/macro recording without being at automatic risk for an eating disorder. I also believe that just because children can and should learn to think abstractly doesn't mean it is the best and most engaging way to teach them.