If you’re healthy, then you are wealthy indeed. Health isn’t something you can buy, but it’s something you can influence, it’s something you can nurture. But do we give our health much thought?

Youth has little or no time for anything as boring as health, yet our early years are very important when it comes to building a ‘health platform’ for our future. When you’re young you don’t give a second thought to health - that is until something goes wrong, but you believe that it never will.

Our attitude to health and diet and exercise in particular, is formed when we are young. Of course what we like best when we are growing up are all the things we shouldn’t eat, sugary things and sweet drinks to name but two.

When we become teenagers we begin to notice others and make comparisons. This is the first time we become aware of how we look. It’s the first time it becomes an important issue in our lives.

Eating the right food when we are children is vitally important. We don’t normally have too much say in what we eat, but children do try and intimidate their parents into giving them things they want. Sometimes this can result in a very distorted diet - a bad diet.

An overweight teenager is often not a happy person. It is often very difficult to make them realize that if they want to change it will take a considerable effort. Many are not able to make that commitment to change for a variety of reasons.

The most important thing is to break bad habits and that requires developing an awareness of what they are. Many of the bad habits will have been endorsed by upbringing. To go against this can be a challenge. What has been accepted as a family culture in terms of diet and exercise takes real resolve and determination to change.

Change can be made easier by not going against the norm, but by learning new habits - slim habits, if you like. New habits will enable change to take place without having to directly confront the past.

Tags: Diet

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