A la Carte

• Many schools offer a selective menu of a la carte items that avoid the high-calorie full lunch being served. Many teen girls often avoid eating properly because of concerns over weight, making it important to ensure that what they do choose are healthy items. Vegetables and dip, yogurt, whole grain breads or even crackers and peanut butter are better than a slice of pizza or cheeseburger or nothing at all.
  
  

Salad Bar

• Many schools even down to the elementary level offer a salad bar of some sort. Choosing a salad for a lunch along with milk or water as a beverage can be filling, provide a good balance of nutrients and avoid fatty high-carbohydrate choices on the menu. Cheese, meat selections like crumbled bacon or turkey add important protein to the mix. For growing teens there is less concern about the number of calories they consume than making the ones they eat count, so bulking up the salad with a roll on the side doesn't hurt if it is whole grain bread that adds fiber.
  
  

Pack It

• Taking a lunch to school is still the best way to make the healthiest choices and control the nutritional quality of the main meal a teen consumes during school hours. Packing a lunch doesn't have to be boring. Whole grain wrap sandwiches are a tasty alternative to a boring and sugary peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Fruit salad, a homemade lunch-able style creation with sliced meat, cheese, crackers and maybe a gelatin dessert cup to round it out make a healthy and satisfying lunch.
  
  

Timing And Snacks

• Eating often is a good way for teens to maintain healthy intake and not get to the point of being so hungry that they will eat whatever they find first, usually junk food. A granola bar in the backpack to munch on between classes is a good energy boost. A handful of nuts, trail mix or raisins also gives a good energy boost and is an easy snack on the go. Eating frequently is a good habit for teens to maintain; having a larger number of small meals during the day keeps the energy flowing and deters overeating.