Ep 38. How To Handle Homework Stress and Unhealthy Eating.

In the comprehensive Health and Behavior in Teenagers Study (HABITS), valuable insights were gathered from 4,320 students, with an average age of just under 12 years. This research sheds light on an important aspect of our children's lives: how stress influences their eating habits. 

Title of manuscript: Stress and Dietary Practices in AdolescentsArticle in Health Psychology · July 2003 
Martin Cartwright, Jane Wardle, Naomi Steggles, Alice E. Simon, Helen Croker, and Martin J. Jarvis

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I’m Dr. Jenny Gourgari—pediatric endocrinologist, certified in obesity medicine and a health coach.
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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
This is the Lifestyle and Weight Loss for Teens
podcast.
If you're a mom and want tohelp your child who is
struggling to lose weight, youare in the right place.
If you are looking for healthylifestyle tips, dr Gorgery is
here to help you understand thescience around safe weight loss
in teens and children, becausewhat works for adult weight loss
is not always the best forchildren.

(00:29):
This podcast is for educationalpurposes only.
Dr Gorgory does not providemedical, psychological or
nutrition therapy advice.
You should not use thisinformation to diagnose or treat
any health problems withoutconsulting your own medical
practitioner and now your host,dr Jenny Gorgory.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
Hello, hello, welcome to another episode of the
Lifestyle and Weight Loss forTeens podcast.
This is Dr Jenny Gorgory and onthis episode I will be talking
about stress and dietarypractices in adolescence.
We all know how important it isto handle our stress so that we
can make healthier choices.

(01:12):
Now we also have scientificevidence by a group that was
done a few years ago and theyactually measured the stress
level of teenagers and theyactually measured what were some
of the habits they were lookingat.
So this was a huge study thatwas done in a university college

(01:35):
of London.
It was published in HealthPsychology Journal in 2003.
It was part of a big studycalled the Health and Behavior
in Teenagers Study, the HabitsStudy.
So what they did is they had atotal of 4,320 school children

(01:56):
roughly like the boys were 2,578and the average age was around
11.8 years.
So they asked them to fill outcertain questionnaires where
they look at their stress leveland then they categorize the
kids in different categoriesaccording to their stress level.

(02:18):
So they had the low-dose stress, the medium stress, medium-high
stress and most perceivedstress.
So they use validatedquestionnaires to do that.
And then they looked atdifferent healthy habits like,
for example, how much fruits andvegetables they were eating,
how much fatty food they wereeating, how much snacking they

(02:43):
were eating, whether they weredoing more than five morning
snacks or afternoon snacks ormore than five evening snacks,
and how many times did they havebreakfast every week.
So they also look at the amountof their weight, whether they
had normal weight or whetherthey were overweight.

(03:04):
In general, as I mentionedbefore, researchers use body
mass index to establish whethera child is overweight or normal
weight, and if you don't knowwhat, you can go back and listen
to episode one of this podcast.
But it is very interesting whatthe researchers found after

(03:26):
they put all the data together.
They found that the kids thathad greater stress, those were
the kids that were more likelyto have more fatty foods.
They were more likely to haveless fruits and vegetables, they
were more likely to have moresnacks and they tend to have

(03:51):
less frequent daily breakfast.
So this is like a clearassociation between the amount
of stress and the amount ofhealthy habits.
It's an inverse relationship.
So what can we do about it?
It is something that is obviousto everyone but is very

(04:15):
difficult to address.
Our teens are juggling a lot.
They have to go to school, theyhave to go do their homework,
they have to go to after schoolactivities.
Sometimes they have problems intheir relationships or they can
be very emotional about it.

(04:38):
They can have a surge on thepubertal hormones that can
exacerbate their feelings.
They can have bursts of angeror sadness, and I can say that
puberty is a very difficultperiod.
Just by the fact alone thatthey go through all these

(05:00):
hormonal changes, their bodychanges, their mind changes,
they have physical changes.
So it is a lot to handle and Ithink what we can do as a first
step is to encourage ourteenagers to be more active, to

(05:20):
get moving more.
And exercise is not just forcardiovascular health, which is
very important, but it is agreat way to handle stress.
Even if we encourage ourteenagers to take a walk in the
afternoon, let's say, when theycome back from school, just go

(05:42):
out or listen to the music, reada book, talk to somebody with
your friends and just even gofor a quick walk or a quick run
or go out and participate insports like play basketball,
play volleyball, go on your bike.
So something that would getthem more physically active is a

(06:06):
great way to handle stressbetter and it doesn't have to be
necessarily one hour per day,although this is what is
recommended by the AmericanAcademy of Pediatrics.
If the child, a particularteenager or child is not
currently involved in anyactivity, even just doing 15 or

(06:26):
20 minutes counts, that is ahuge progress and that's how we
can start and then startbuilding on it.
The second thing that is also animportant way to handle the
stress and then by handling thestress, as I said, can also
indirectly help with thesehealthy habits is to open up

(06:48):
those lines of communication.
Our kids need to know that theycan talk to us about anything
that is bothering them.
They can talk to us about theirfrustrations.
They can talk to us about theirfrustrations.
They can talk to us about theirdisappointments.
They can talk to us about whythey feel upset.
They can talk to us about theway they are sad.

(07:08):
It's a great comfort for themand I know that teenagers get
that support.
They prefer to get that supportfrom their friends, which is
totally fine, but as parents wecan also be there with them,
show them our support so we canoffer some insight, we can offer
some help to them so they feelopen towards us, so they can

(07:32):
feel they can trust what we haveto say and even if we don't
always agree, just the fact thatthey know they have somebody
that they can listen to theirproblems that alone is
significantly important.
And finally, one last thingthat we could do is we can make

(07:53):
sure that there are all thesefruits and vegetables available
at our homes so even if they dofeel they need to have healthy
snacks, or even if they do needto have a snack, they can reach
for a healthier alternative thatis available compared to
unhealthy options.
We can make those morenutritious options available to

(08:16):
them.
And another potentially area ofimprovement is time management.
Sometimes setting things ontheir schedule and looking where
they're wasting their time andwhat they can do to save time
just saving time and organizingSometimes that also can help

(08:37):
with their stress.
And organizing sometimes thatalso can help with their stress.
So that's all I had to say fortoday.
I hope it was helpful.
I know we keep talking aboutstress, but I just wanted to
emphasize one more time howstress is super important in
terms of creating those healthyhabits.

(08:58):
And finding what are the beststrategies for every child to
handle their stress is a goodfirst step.
So have a conversation withyour teenager.
Ask them what do you thinkabout this?
How is your stress level?
Is there anything I can do tohelp you with your stress?

(09:20):
What is the biggest struggleyou're facing right now?
What can I do to support you?
Start the conversation, andthat may be the first step for a
better management of stress.
Take care, y'all, and I willtalk to you soon If you enjoyed
listening to this podcast.

Speaker 1 (09:41):
I invite you to come check out the Lyft program.
It's Dr Gorgeri's 12-weekcoaching program for teens and
their moms, where we take allthis information, we apply it to
your daily life and we worktogether so your teenager learns
how to create a healthylifestyle so they can feel
happier, more confident, lessstressed and love their body
again.
Visit the website atlifestyleforteenscom and click

(10:03):
on the Work With Me and freeresources to learn more about
this program and get free helpto start this journey right away
.
Thanks for tuning in and we'llcatch you in the next episode of
Lifestyle and Weight Loss forTeens teams.