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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Parent of a teen athlete and we are vegetarian. I’m all for following what our bodies tell us as far as when we’re hungry/full but I don’t think our bodies tell us what we need to eat to stay healthy. Even if they did we are so bombarded by marketing that it’s a struggle for our brains to process anyway.

Pasta is a processed food. If you’re having pasta for dinner anyway, trying a higher protein kind isn’t a bad swap. 
Having a tofu nugget instead of a chicken nugget, also not a bad swap.
Bars full of sugar, and powders, are crap imo. We avoid those. 
I tend to sort of track daily but there are some days it’s lower and I know at the end of the week it’s balanced out.
My kid loves smoothies. Use a high protein yogurt, frozen fruit, almond milk ( more calcium than soy, but if you’re not worried about calcium you can use soy). I also put chia seeds in. This is a snack in our house 3-4x a week and has about 18-26 grams of protein depending on the yogurt/milk you use. 
[/quote]

OP here,

To be clear, I'm not saying that I trust my small children to go running off to 7 11 and make perfect choices.

But in my experience, if you offer a few healthy choices that the kid likes, with varied nutrients at each meal, they'll end up choosing a variety that meats their needs, at least in terms of macros.  That doesn't mean that every meal will refect some ideal balance, but that over time that balance will be there.

With my older kid, I can see differences in how he chooses food, based on how fast he's growing, or how active he is.  For example, he's working an active job, and playing a demanding sport right now, so he's eating both more volume and calories, and more protein as a percent of his diet, than he was during the school year, when he might be active 3 hours a day instead of his current 11.

Because of that, and because the dietician we used for a different issue felt very strongly about it, I would be very hesitant to start imposing some kind of set macros on him.

But no, just because I feel like I can put Greek yogurt, a few kinds of fruit, and some whole grain toast and a jar of peanut butter on the table, and feel confident that my kids will assemble a breakfast that meets their needs, I'm aware that if I added donuts and poptarts and sweet tea to the options it would make the same outcome less likely.

I like your smoothie recipe.  Ours is a little different, but similarly whole food based. [/quote]

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