Ep. 98 . 7 Foods Teens Think Are “Healthy" But Are Not

Are the foods your teen eats every day actually helping their metabolism… or keeping insulin high all day long?

I go over 7 foods that are commonly marketed as “healthy” for teens — but may contain hidden sugars that contribute to cravings, fatigue, increased hunger, and weight gain over time.

You’ll learn:

•  Which foods may not be as healthy as you thought
•  Simple swaps that support healthier hormones and metabolism

Do you worry your teen is gaining weight quickly or seems hungry all the time?
Are you afraid this could lead to prediabetes or diabetes later in life?

That’s why I created the “Healthy Weight Starts with Healthy Habits": A 7-Day Hormone Reset Program for Teens.

ONLY $25 - Learn more here !

I’m Dr. Jenny Gourgari—pediatric endocrinologist, certified in obesity medicine and a health coach. 
After helping hundreds of teens struggling with their weight and hormones, I’ve created a whole new path by doing what most programs miss: balance puberty hormones naturally and create habits that actually last.

Here's what makes this different:
✅ No dieting. No calorie counting. No shame.
✅ No more food fights between parents and teens.
✅ No weight obsession—just healthy habits
✅ Real science behind how puberty hormones affect weight
✅ A safe, supportive approach that prevents eating disorders

Because when teens understand their hormones and get the right support, they don’t just lose weight—they gain strength, energy, confidence, and freedom!

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🎁 Grab your FREE high-protein recipe guide with 30 meals teens will love.
Links
30 Healthy Recipes for teens
lifestyleforteens.com/recipes

Smoothies Recipes for teens
lifestyleforteens.com/smoothies

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Transcript

Welcome to another episode of the Lifestyle and Weight Loss For Teens podcast. Today, I wanna talk about something that comes up in almost every conversation I have with families I work with, your teen is trying to be healthier. They switch from soda to juice.

They're eating granola bars instead of chips. They're having a smoothie every morning, and you're doing everything that you were told was healthy, but their weight is still going up. They're still tired. They're still craving sugar every afternoon, and nobody has told you why. So today, I'm gonna show you exactly why.

Because some of the foods that teens and their parents believe that they are healthy choices, and those are the foods that actually keep their insulin elevated all day long. And when insulin is chronically elevated, it promotes fat storage and makes it harder for the body to access stored fat for energy.

So we are talking about meal patterns that keep insulin spiking all day long against your teen's metabolic health, even when the food is supposed to be healthy. Okay? So before I start, I want to say something that is really important because I know

when you hear the title about what is healthy and, your first instinct is that, "Oh- No, I need to take away more things that I thought they were healthy, then I will be left with no choices at all, right?

I'm not here to create a list of forbidden foods, and I'm not here to say what you should not be eating all foods have a place in moderation, right? I talked before many times about how restrictive eating behaviors in teenagers can backfire, and they can lead to weight gain over time.

They can affect, teens psychological. They can have, a progression to distorted eating behaviors, and that's not what we want. But I do wanna, talk today about certain foods that are commonly used by teenagers, and there's this misconceptions, that this is healthy, and therefore they go and eat a lot of that without realizing that may not be healthy.

Food number one is flavored yogurts. Teenagers think that, "Oh, this is yogurt. It must be healthy. It has protein. It has calcium. It's no fat. It's low fat. Yes, if you have a flavored yogurt, it's better than a bag of chips.

However, a lot of those flavored yogurts, have a lot of sugar. Anywhere between 12 to 20 grams of total sugar per serving, and a significant portion of that sugar is on top of the naturally occurring lactose, the naturally occurring sugar in yogurt. If you added no sugar at all, no flavor, that yogurt still has sugar.

That's the naturally occurring sugar in the yogurt. It makes it more, flavorful. But the cost is there's more sugar it's a big difference whether you're having, Greek yogurt with, pieces of fruits inside it versus strawberry flavored yogurt- From grocery stores.

Instead of getting flavored yogurt, get plain yogurt, Greek yogurt, and add strawberries. Or get plain yogurt and add blueberries, or grape plain yogurt and add bananas. That will give you, the fiber that you need and will not give you extra sugar.

So number two food that is thought to be healthy and it's not so healthy? It's fruit juice. Some of them say that it's natural juice, but in reality, that juice has a lot of sugar.

If you look at the ingredients, that is gonna tell you how much sugar there is. Whether you drink the orange juice versus whether you actually eat the fruit, is not the same thing, and that is because there's not much fiber on the orange juice versus the fiber that you get if you actually have the fruit, I know there are better juices than other juices. There are some, juices that are 100% juice and no, added sugar. Definitely that is better juice than juice that has sugar. But why not have the fruit? Why not have the fiber? And why not have water so that you get hydrated with the actual fruit?

That's how you get the fiber, you get the vitamins, and you get the hydration. Now, moving forward to food number three, granola bars. Are granola bars healthy? It sounds that it's healthy, because it's one of the best teen snacks out there. That's how it's advertised. So made with whole grains or no artificial flavors in most granola bars, it's not just the grains. If you turn it over, you look at the ingredients, you look how much are the grams of added sugar. And number two, how much are the grams of added, protein? Now, you can find anywhere between 10 to 18 grams of, sugar, and that's a lot of sugar for a snack, right?

So if you have that, you're gonna have an insulin increase, and then your sugar's gonna drop, then you're gonna feel hungry afterwards. You're gonna have more granolas or you're gonna have to eat again. So a granola by itself, it's not healthy, particularly the ones that you buy from the grocery stores.

If you're looking for a healthy snack, it's, easy to grab a granola bar, but how about you grab a hard-boiled egg? How about you, grab a string of cheese? How about you grab an apple? How about you grab some almonds? These are healthy snacks that can give you protein, can make you feel full, will not have the huge spike of insulin, and it's real food.

Number four of unhealthy food that may surprise some of you is sports drinks. Gatorade, Powerade, and all those things that they're marketed so aggressively as health products for teenagers for electrolyte, replenishment, for hydration, so in a standard big bottle of Gatorades, you can have 34 grams of sugar, and some of them you can think, "Oh, that's less than...

it's in a can s- of soda." Yes, but it's still a lot of sugar. And you usually don't drink that in one sitting. You'll have a little bit, a little bit, which means you're gonna have spikes of insulin consistently, right?

So if you're doing a lot of sports, I understand you want hydration. The best thing for hydration is water. And if you want energy, have a real snack that can give you carbohydrates and the energy that you need. Now, there are some flavored waters, coconut water, that may not have, sugar, and I'm okay with that.

I prefer the water, plain water, but if you compare the Gatorade and all those sweet teas and high-energy drinks and all those things, they're not as bad flavored water. Number five, flavored oatmeal. Oatmeal is generally a good food, especially if steel-cut oats, they're very healthy.

They have fiber. They can make you feel full, and they don't have such a big spike of insulin. However, if you get the flavored oatmeals, like maple brown sugar oatmeal and all those things, they are sweetened. They are processed. They have significantly less fiber because they're instant, oatmeals.

They wanna be, cooked quickly, and then you don't get all the benefits that you get from the actual, um, oats. So if you have oatmeal on its own, when it's plain, and it has carbohydrates, but they're healthier carbohydrates, and then you add a little bit of protein, and milk has that protein, then that is great.

That used to be, and still is, one of my favorite breakfast, oatmeal with plain milk. That's it. But, if you have the flavored oatmeal, you're missing the advantage. So try to get, oatmeal that is not flavored, and try to combine it with some protein. Like you can have it with yogurt. You can even add some peanut butter.

You can add berries, blueberries. You can add almonds. The way you eat the oatmeals is very important. Choose the healthy oatmeal, not the flavored oatmeal. Number six is protein bars. Protein bars. Look at the label and look what is it exactly that is in those protein bars. You can have 20 gram of protein and at the same time you get another 25 grams of sugar, and a long list of all other ingredients that you don't even recognize when you're reading those, right?

They can have erythritol, they can have sorbitol, they can have other, uh, nutrients, uh, artificial sweeteners, and I'm gonna talk another time about those. But remember the goal, the, the reason those protein bars were created was because they wanted to enhance, the performance of those running marathons, right?

So they needed some quick, they were running. That's a different role. And I'm not saying never have them again, right? There is a role, you can have them, you can enjoy them, but if this is your go-to snack, and if you consistently take 20 to 25 grams of sugar from those, then I would invite you to find some other alternatives.

Look again at the ingredients and choose again instead of another snack that could be whole food, and healthier option. If you're looking for ideas, you can go to my website, lifestyleforteens.com, and look at the free resources. I have created an idea of like, uh, several 20, healthy snacks for teenagers that are healthier than packaged snacks, and it's free.

You can grab it number seven of unhealthy is fruit smoothies. Smoothie is better than soda, however, because it has fruits, however, there are a lot of smoothies that is not just the fruit- there is also, on the smoothie a lot of sugar.

Sometimes, you can find large smoothies from popular chains that have 60 to 80 gram of sugar depending on, what is the smoothie that you're, looking to get. Sometimes they can add ice cream, sometimes they can add juice, and they say they can add, fruits, but it's not actually the fruit.

It's frozen fruit. It's frozen fruit. Frozen berries, oranges, bananas. Those frozen fruit have a lot of sugar. So if you're gonna have a smoothie, take the real fruit, make it at your house, add protein, add plain yogurt, add milk, add, cottage cheese if you want to.

Don't get them from stores where they use, frozen fruits that have a lot of sugar. You can find the information, if it is a smoothie that you buy from a popular chain that sell, smoothies. Look at the ingredients. Usually they have labels with nutritional information.

Look and see what is the amount of the added sugar that you are getting. So to summarize, number one, flavored yogurt. Check the added sugars on the label. Instead, use Greek yogurt with real fruit. Two is juice that has a lot of sugar. Number three is protein bars. Number four, sport drinks.

My favorite is just drink water. Number five is flavored instant oatmeal, so go for the regular oatmeal with fruits. Number six, look at the labels of the protein bars. And number seven, if you're gonna have a smoothie, get one that is homemade and has no added sugar. So that's all I had for you today.

I hope this was helpful. Don't forget to like and subscribe if you're watching on YouTube, and leave a comment. What is the one thing that you had in your diet that you thought was healthy, and after this you're gonna make a healthier change? I'll see you soon. Take care.