Sinthia's food journal

By Suzy Sorensen, nutritionist

Sinthia has a good diet but does what many of us do and goes long periods between meals, which actually makes your body want to store calories more.

Suzy Sorensen, a nutritionist at Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota gave two teens advice about how they eat. Photo courtesy of Sorensen.

It’s recommended to choose smaller portions and eat within an hour of waking up, then don’t go more than five hours on an empty stomach while you’re awake.

Sinthia Mireya Turcios, Minneapolis sophomore

Here is my nutrition package. I just noticed that I ate hamburgers at school more than twice in less than a week. That is so bad, but I think that I’m going to keep doing this (journal) because it helps me see how my nutrition is doing.

Day 1

10:31 a.m. Had scrambled eggs with tomatoes, onions and sausage along with black beans and cream. Drank coffee with milk and sugar.

6:35 p.m. Ate two pieces of hot bread with butter. Then a salad with what I believe was ranch dressing. Lastly chicken marsala and two more pieces of bread with butter. Drank coffee again, had two refills and a lot of coffee creams.

8:00 p.m. Had lemon, strawberry and chocolate ice cream for dessert along with a little piece of cake because it was one of my friend’s birthday.

Comments: I hadn’t noticed I only ate twice today, but they were really big portions so I am satisfied. I had not noticed either that I am a coffee junky! I drank coffee like three or four times today alone. That must not be good.

Day 2

8:20 a.m. Had a bagel with egg and sausage. Drank apple juice.

12:10 a.m. Ate a cheeseburger with mayo and ketchup followed by a caesar salad. Finished it with a strawberry flavored apple sauce. Drank chocolate milk. Then went to buy Funyuns and Scooby Doo fruit-flavored snacks.

7:15 p.m. Ate Burger King with the family.

Comments: I am kind of embarrassed when I noticed that I had eaten hamburgers twice in one day. I didn’t drink any water today, instead I drank a lot of soda at Burger King. Not good, again. I’m going to start to change the chocolate milk for water. That should be more healthy.

Day 3

8:22 a.m. Had a banana and strawberry yogurt with a granola bar and apple juice.

12:00 a.m. Ate a Philly Cheesesteak sandwich, caesar salad, apple sauce and drank chocolate milk.

7:46 p.m. Had two sunny side-up eggs, black beans with cream, and coffee with milk and sugar. For dessert I had a french toast with strawberries and whipped cream.

Comments: In the morning, I had to rush to get to something so I grabbed something for breakfast that I could finish fast. At lunch I was really hungry so I took the sandwich, but it wasn’t so good. Dinner was definitely my highlight. Overall I think today I ate balanced meals.

Suzy says

Hi Sinthia!

I like your comments and that you’re thinking about healthy changes you could make. You mentioned Sunday that you only ate twice but had large portions. Timing makes a big difference in healthy eating! Your school days look better, but you could consider an afternoon snack.

Generally, it’s recommended to choose smaller portions and eat within an hour of waking up, then don’t go more than five hours on an empty stomach while you’re awake. You have a long stretch between lunch and dinner. It’s easy to get too hungry and then overeat if we wait too long.

For your age, the goal is to eat 5-7 fruit and vegetable helpings each day. I see some beans, salad, and fruit in your journal — a great start! Maybe you could add in a fresh fruit as an afternoon snack? Remember, only 4 oz of juice daily is recommended and can count as one fruit serving.

Like lots of teens, you might not be getting enough Vitamin D. It takes four cups of milk each day to get 100 percent. If you aren’t interested in drinking four cups of milk, you could consider taking a calcium-D supplement (pill) to get 400 IU of vitamin D each day. I think you should keep the milk at lunch!

You identified that the coffee was a little over board. In my mind, it’s less about the coffee and more about the added sugar and creamer. These are high calorie or high fat foods — a little goes a long way.

A few other high fat foods appear like cream, butter, ice cream, mayo, and salad dressing. To maintain a healthy weight, we usually encourage either using low-calorie options (maybe you already are), or else really having small portions of these high calorie foods.

I think you’re doing a super job of spreading food over the day and getting a good variety!