While doing focus groups with teenagers about nutrition messages to use in this strategy I can honestly say I laughed a lot! Perhaps I’ve been tarred with the ‘politically correct’ brush for a bit long – but the message from the teenagers was clear – “just say what you mean”. Unanimously they agreed purist nutrition messages “are boring and you just ignore them”.

So whilst from a technical aspect some of the messages may be simplified too much or are too generalised – the core message is based on robust science. They might use language that makes you cringe – but the net effect was that we were able to come up with 10 foodie rules they could relate to.

Over the next few weeks I will be covering each of the foodie rules in my blog -  but to give you a sample of what we came up with here are three of the ten. (You can get the full set in the free eBook – download on www.itsmyturntocook.com or follow the link on the right hand column)

• All food is ok, but don’t do binge or excess – it’s how much and how often  you eat a food …  2 or 3 chocolate biscuits are ok – a packet isn’t… a can or glass of coke is fine – 2 litres is over the top…
• If it’s greasy or fatty you need to hold back - this stuff blocks your arteries, makes you fat and gives you yuk skin!
• Don’t watch too much TV (another strange nutrition goal) but people who sit around for hours are far more likely to eat junk food. Fact: too much junk food gives you a big bum.

Tags: cook, Cooking tips for teens, food, Nutrition messages for teens, teenagers, teens

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 25th, 2010 at 12:18 pm and is filed under Parenting tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.