If you're healthy, then you are wealthy indeed. Health isn't something you can buy, but it's something you can influence, it's something you can nurture. But do we give our health much thought?

Youth has little or no time for anything as boring as health, yet our early years are very important when it comes to building a 'health platform' for our future. When you're young you don't give a second thought to health - that is until something goes wrong, but you believe that it never will.

What we eat when we are young is mostly up to other people. All we try and do is to avoid green vegetables and anything that is said to 'be good for us'. Things that are 'good for you' you believe taste awful. You far prefer candy and cola.

It all starts to matter when we become teenagers and we begin to take note of our looks and the way others look. We are all too aware of the comparisons that are made.

Getting into the right way of eating when we are young is very important. We don't have too much say in the matter, so we trust those who look after us to make the right judgements. Unfortunately, many don't get the right diet - for a variety of reasons.

An overweight teenager is often not a happy person. It is often very difficult to make them realize that if they want to change it will take a considerable effort. Many are not able to make that commitment to change for a variety of reasons.

The most important thing is to break bad habits and that requires developing an awareness of what they are. Many of the bad habits will have been endorsed by upbringing. To go against this can be a challenge. What has been accepted as a family culture in terms of diet and exercise takes real resolve and determination to change.

To make a real and lasting difference it's not diets that are needed, but a more fundamental change in behaviour. The only really successful way to do this is to learn new habits, slim habits, that will enable lasting change to take place.