Free guide · Scarlet Beast En español →
Take charge of your health, for teens: what to eat and drink, what to have less of, moving more, sleep, and weight
For teenagers who want to feel better and take care of their body. It passes on, by name, what the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK, part of the NIH) says in its guide for teenagers: what to eat and drink at ages 14 to 18, the nutrients many teens miss, what to have less of, how much to move, screens, sleep, what to do if you are worried about your weight and what never to try, and how to change a habit. It is about health, not the size of your body. It builds the words to say to a health care professional, a school nurse or a parent, and prints a goals card. Nothing is saved.
Right now
- Are you in danger right now? Call 911; you do not need to be sure (ours: NIDDK’s page names no 911).
- Has food, eating or your body become all too much? Call or text 988, any hour (ours), and see When eating has become a fight.
More help
- On this site: Eating well and moving more · Food portions · Helping your child eat well (for parents).
- Sleep and smoking: When you can’t sleep · Quitting smoking.
- When it is hard: When eating has become a fight · When you need food · When you need a doctor and can’t pay.
- Getting ready: Get ready for your appointment. In a crisis: Help right now (988, 911). All our free tools.
Your heart, blood pressure, blood sugar, thyroid or blood, and not sure this is the right page? The pages on this site for a heart attack or stroke, blood pressure, AFib, heart failure, cholesterol, diabetes and prediabetes, the thyroid, anemia, sickle cell and menopause, on one list.
Looking after a baby or child? The pages on this site for a baby or child, on one list.
Other guides on this site that go with this page
Free to read. We chose these ourselves; no professional did. Each guide was written with AI and has not been reviewed by a professional. They are general information, not advice.
- Changing your habits for better health: the four stages, the pros and cons, the roadblocks, and keeping it up: changing your habits for better health (eating better, moving more): the four stages of change, the pros and cons, the common roadblocks and their solutions, small goals, setbacks, and keeping it up.
- Insomnia: when sleep won’t come, night after night: insomnia: what it looks like, what causes it, the sleep habits, the therapy that comes first, and what to know about sleep medicines.
This page and its wording were written with AI (Claude) for Scarlet Beast (our AI policy). No doctor, nurse or dietitian has reviewed it. The facts were read on October 19, 2026 on NIDDK’s (NIH) page Take Charge of Your Health: A Guide for Teenagers (last reviewed May 2023) and its Spanish page Hazte cargo de tu salud: una guía para adolescentes, which say the same. The numbers (for ages 14 to 18, about 2 1/2 to 4 cups of vegetables, 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 cups of fruit with no more than 1 cup of juice, and about 3 cups of dairy a day; added sugars and saturated fat each under 10% of daily calories; one can of soda often 150 calories from sugar; sodium under 2,300 mg a day, about 1 teaspoon of salt; at least 60 minutes of activity a day, with muscle and bone activities at least 3 days a week; screens under 2 hours a day, not counting homework or a job; 8 to 10 hours of sleep; the National Quitline, 1-800-QUIT-NOW) are NIDDK’s, most citing the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020–2025, and the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, and we add none. Ours: 911 and 988 (NIDDK names neither on this page); our eating disorders, sleep, quit smoking, food help and low-cost care pages; that you may not choose what is cooked at home, and small changes still count; that a disability or health condition may change what kinds of activity fit you; the questions; the links to our other pages; and the order of the steps. What we left out: the body mass index and NIDDK’s link to a calculator for it (we say “a measure based on your height and weight”), and its figures on how many teens have obesity and what that means later (this guide is about health, not the size of your body); its references; and its links to other sites (the MyPlate Plan, the FDA’s interactive Nutrition Facts label, the school meal programs, Move Your Way, Smokefree.gov), which we name. Nothing you tick or type here is saved or sent.