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Unhealthy dieting practices
The study found some very interesting points regarding the dieting habits of adolescent and preadolescent girls in Australia. The sample was taken eight hundred sixty-nine Australian school girls ages 14-16 years.
The results of the study were found through extensive statistical analysis of comprehensive questionnaires that took into consideration several different factors. These factors were in regards to eating habits, self perception of body image, comparison of self to societies ideal body image (as represented by models and such), input received from family and significant others (with respect to image and weight), and dieting practices among others. The one factor that may have distorted the results a little bit, in my opinion, is the fact that subjects with disordered eating and unhealthy dieting practices are prone to denial. Therefore any questions that may have been directed to finding out whether or not the girls considered they had a problem or were unhealthy will be somewhat warped…god this is dry..
The results of the study are quite disturbing to say the least. Overwhelming numbers of the girls reported that they thought themselves overweight despite the fact that the body measurements found them to be either of normal proportions or underweight. This is interesting because one of the most basic instincts we posses as humans is that of survival, and these girls are harming their still developing bodies by depriving them of the necessary nutrients. They use methods like crash dieting (eating very small portions of food, or just liquid) laxatives, pills, and all sorts of other interesting and nauseating methods such as cigarettes (I guess because they produce a sensation of satiety and the nicotine gives them a boost?) This is not only depriving the body and preventing the necessary growth, but also hurting it. It just goes to show that the adage of mind over body must be true. By this I mean that this societal obsession has compelled these children to suppress their most basic instinct in order to achieve a perceived ideal through unhealthy and harmful methods. On top of all this, it has been well documented that weight loss attempts and dietary restriction in adolescents have also associated with a variety of symptoms including fatigue, anxiety, menstrual irregularities, impaired concentration, listlessness, and poor school performance.
Of my own personal experience I know of such a case, my friend (who interestingly enough went to school in Australia) used intensive dieting to be able to model while still in her teens. She used to smoke something like a pack of cigarettes a day, and drank lots of coffee. As a result, now she is about five foot two inches (in circumstances that the other women of her family, who ate normally average about five foot six inches) and she cannot loose weight easily even exercising with a personal trainer. My guess is that she managed to slow her metabolism, as described by the article, to the point that it needed less energy to run, and thus made weight loss difficult. Curiously, at the age of 20, now that she eats a relatively healthy diet she has grown about an inch in the last year.
Other variables which significantly correlated with unhealthy dieting behaviors by regression analysis were the desire to have the slender media-promoted ‘‘ideal’’ body shape, currently trying to lose weight, family members other than parents suggesting the girl was overweight, other people suggesting the girl was overweight, being 15 years of age, being normal- or overweight, and lower knowledge scores (i.e., knowledge
of weight, weight reduction methods, and eating problems), the desire to have the slender media-promoted ‘‘ideal’’ body shape, male friends suggesting the girl was underweight.
These variables are extremely interesting, especially the one that says that when male friends suggested that the girl was underweight, she actually pushed herself to loose even more weight. It seems that the girls almost had a sense of accomplishment with these remarks and took them as approval which made them strive even harder to be ‘underweight”.
The lack of understanding of these girls that health is paramount, and that an active lifestyle coupled with a healthy diet will bring about strong healthy bodies is rather sad to say the least. The school system should emphasize exercise and healthy eating habits as a way to achieve physical health, self esteem, confidence and well being. It should also create mandatory programs explaining the effects of these unhealthy dieting methods and their long term consequences while at the same time teaching ways to maintain healthy diet and lifestyle. Its sad that young adolescents are depriving their bodies, stunting their growth, and destroying their health to achieve a perceived ideal that many times is not even real (airbrushing of models photographs is a quite common). What is even more depressing is that they are not content with the way they look and don’t know how to go about sculpting themselves in a healthy manner.
Unhealthy dieting practices
The study found some very interesting points regarding the dieting habits of adolescent and preadolescent girls in Australia. The sample was taken eight hundred sixty-nine Australian school girls ages 14-16 years.
The results of the study were found through extensive statistical analysis of comprehensive questionnaires that took into consideration several different factors. These factors were in regards to eating habits, self perception of body image, comparison of self to societies ideal body image (as represented by models and such), input received from family and significant others (with respect to image and weight), and dieting practices among others. The one factor that may have distorted the results a little bit, in my opinion, is the fact that subjects with disordered eating and unhealthy dieting practices are prone to denial. Therefore any questions that may have been directed to finding out whether or not the girls considered they had a problem or were unhealthy will be somewhat warped…god this is dry..
The results of the study are quite disturbing to say the least. Overwhelming numbers of the girls reported that they thought themselves overweight despite the fact that the body measurements found them to be either of normal proportions or underweight. This is interesting because one of the most basic instincts we posses as humans is that of survival, and these girls are harming their still developing bodies by depriving them of the necessary nutrients. They use methods like crash dieting (eating very small portions of food, or just liquid) laxatives, pills, and all sorts of other interesting and nauseating methods such as cigarettes (I guess because they produce a sensation of satiety and the nicotine gives them a boost?) This is not only depriving the body and preventing the necessary growth, but also hurting it. It just goes to show that the adage of mind over body must be true. By this I mean that this societal obsession has compelled these children to suppress their most basic instinct in order to achieve a perceived ideal through unhealthy and harmful methods. On top of all this, it has been well documented that weight loss attempts and dietary restriction in adolescents have also associated with a variety of symptoms including fatigue, anxiety, menstrual irregularities, impaired concentration, listlessness, and poor school performance.
Of my own personal experience I know of such a case, my friend (who interestingly enough went to school in Australia) used intensive dieting to be able to model while still in her teens. She used to smoke something like a pack of cigarettes a day, and drank lots of coffee. As a result, now she is about five foot two inches (in circumstances that the other women of her family, who ate normally average about five foot six inches) and she cannot loose weight easily even exercising with a personal trainer. My guess is that she managed to slow her metabolism, as described by the article, to the point that it needed less energy to run, and thus made weight loss difficult. Curiously, at the age of 20, now that she eats a relatively healthy diet she has grown about an inch in the last year.
Other variables which significantly correlated with unhealthy dieting behaviors by regression analysis were the desire to have the slender media-promoted ‘‘ideal’’ body shape, currently trying to lose weight, family members other than parents suggesting the girl was overweight, other people suggesting the girl was overweight, being 15 years of age, being normal- or overweight, and lower knowledge scores (i.e., knowledge
of weight, weight reduction methods, and eating problems), the desire to have the slender media-promoted ‘‘ideal’’ body shape, male friends suggesting the girl was underweight.
These variables are extremely interesting, especially the one that says that when male friends suggested that the girl was underweight, she actually pushed herself to loose even more weight. It seems that the girls almost had a sense of accomplishment with these remarks and took them as approval which made them strive even harder to be ‘underweight”.
The lack of understanding of these girls that health is paramount, and that an active lifestyle coupled with a healthy diet will bring about strong healthy bodies is rather sad to say the least. The school system should emphasize exercise and healthy eating habits as a way to achieve physical health, self esteem, confidence and well being. It should also create mandatory programs explaining the effects of these unhealthy dieting methods and their long term consequences while at the same time teaching ways to maintain healthy diet and lifestyle. Its sad that young adolescents are depriving their bodies, stunting their growth, and destroying their health to achieve a perceived ideal that many times is not even real (airbrushing of models photographs is a quite common). What is even more depressing is that they are not content with the way they look and don’t know how to go about sculpting themselves in a healthy manner.