Diets:
The Impact of No-Carb and No-Fat Diets on Mood
At
some point your teenager, or yourself, may decide to limit your
nutritional intake by choosing a vegetarian diet, or perhaps by
adopting a "no carb" or "no fat" food policy.
Teenagers are likely to inform parents of their new diet practice,
rather than ask their parents' opinion prior to the new diet. Self-imposed
dietary restrictions are very common today.
A
vegetarian diet eliminates red meat, poultry and fish. It is a plant-focused
diet with many variations. For instance, the lacto-ovo vegetarian
consumes dairy, eggs, and plant foods. The lacto vegetarian only
consumes dairy and plant foods. When all animal foods are eliminated,
the diet qualifies as a vegan diet. The more restrictive the diet,
the more challenging it is for you or your teenager to get adequate
nutrition. The vegetarian lifestyle can be healthy, but it is definitely
more challenging to get adequate B-12, adequate protein, and adequate
calcium.
Another
self-imposed dietary restriction may be a no-fat diet. Teens employing
this no-fat restriction usually consume only fat-free products despite
the caloric level. A no-fat restriction makes satiation very hard
to achieve, and thus many kids find their appetite insatiable. Your
teen may initially lose weight from the calorie decrease. However,
it is probable they will eventually gain weight due to their constant
appetite from exclusively non-fat food selections. Your child may
also be at risk for an essential fatty acid deficiency if they have
eliminated all fats from their intake. This can make them moody
and even precipitate a depression.
The
"No-Carb" restriction is very common among teens now.
Teenagers follow a low or no-carbohydrate diet with the intention
of losing weight or ridding himself or herself from the "bad"
food. Many teenagers are associating carbohydrates as "bad
food" due to so many people adopting such currently popular
diets as South Beach Diet and the Atkins Diet. Kids start restricting
breads, pasta, potatoes, rice, beans, fruit, vegetables, milk, and
yogurt. Limiting these particular foods makes it difficult to obtain
essential vitamins, minerals, fiber, antioxidants, and phytochemicals,
which are all shown to decrease the risk of heart disease, some
cancers, diabetes, hypertension, and sometimes gastrointestinal
problems. Children are active and are still growing; it is important
that they have a varied diet including complex carbohydrates. Complex
carbohydrates provide energy to the body, and especially the brain,
because it can only use simple sugar, or glucose, most readily synthesized
by the body from carbohydrates.
With
the current situation of so many teenagers adopting radically restrictive
diets, dieticians and parents must be on the lookout for mood changes
such as irritability and depression that might go beyond what we
expect to see in our son or daughter. Diet has an impact on mood
and highly restrictive diets can have a dramatic impact.
12/05
