ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on barriers that prevent young people from eating healthily and making good lifestyle choices. It outlines the basic concept of a healthy diet that is suitable for young people, using The Balance of Good Health eating plan. The chapter explains the decision-making process, particularly in relation to food and exercise, so that young people can take charge over creating a healthy lifestyle. The popularity of a food depends only partly on its flavour. The chapter also focuses on three themes to build up an understanding of why young people eat the way they do and thus find avenues for change. The themes are: a young person's upbringing, the lure of different foods and physical factors such as fullness, hunger and energy requirements. Young people are no longer children who can be simply told what to do, but neither do they have the experience and maturity that are acquired during adulthood.
