Peer Pressure and Bad Eating Habits

People of almost every age experience peer pressure to eat unhealthy foods -- temptation is not just reserved for children and teenagers. You may go out to dinner with friends or attend a wedding followed by a scrumptious, all-you-can-eat buffet and open bar. If you have not been blessed with an ultra-fast metabolism, you are going to have to make lower-calorie food choices and avoid drinking too much alcohol. Otherwise, you will gain weight and put yourself at risk for high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol.

Create a Plan

• If you have a tendency to gain weight or if your child does, planning is the operative word. In fact, you will have to plan what you and your family eat at home and away from home as well as encourage them to eat healthy foods at special events. You can't make your family conform to your eating plan, but you can at least make it easier for them to make better food choices than their friends and coworkers are making.

At Home

• Plan healthy meals. Find a calorie/fat gram chart online, and keep your foods as close to their natural state as possible. For example, a baked potato's nutrients are primarily in its skin, so serve the whole potato more often than you serve potatoes mashed or scalloped. Serve your vegetables, such as green beans or carrots, fresh or frozen, as canned vegetables contain a lot of salt. Make a dinner menu each week, and stick to it.

School and Work

• Pack healthy lunches for your family to eat while they are at school and work. If you or your husband eat out every day at lunchtime, you will end up consuming too many calories and spending too much money. Save your money for the things that really matter, like family vacations, a new car or another big-ticket item. Make your lunches pleasant to look at and satisfying to eat. A turkey salad sandwich is a lot tastier than a baloney sandwich -- it is much healthier, too. If your family likes what you are making them, they'll pick your brown bag lunch over a cheeseburger and bucket of fries.

Special Events

• Special events like weddings, pot lucks and buffet banquets don't have to be huge temptations. If you are serving your family healthy and tasty meals, they will most likely choose similar foods from the buffet table. Greasy, gooey entrees drenched in fat and gravy are not appealing when you are consistently eating healthy and tasty food at home.

Be an Example

• Your family is going to be pressured by their peers to eat unhealthy food served in gargantuan portions, and there is nothing you can do to change that. But, if you consistently advocate and serve tasty, nutritious foods at home and in your family's brown-bag breakfasts and lunches, chances are your family will make healthy choices most of the time. Be an example in the way you eat, the meals you serve and the choices you make when you are away from home. Your consistency is your best weapon in fighting peer pressure to eat non-nutritional, high-calorie foods.