Article: Young, skinny ‹ and obsessed with diets

Young, skinny ‹ and obsessed with diets
Weight concerns can as early as 14 Fashion, parents take the
blameGirls, and some boys too, unduly concerned about weight


MARGO VARADI
TORONTO STAR

Dominique Dasti hates her body and no matter how hard she tries she
can't get it to look the way she wants.

"People say I'm too skinny but I look in the mirror and don't see that
at all," says Dominique, 13. "Kids used to tease me and say I'm fat but
they don't anymore ... I've kept that thought that I'm big and fatter
than anyone else and it won't go away. I don't think I could ever feel
skinny."

Dominique is proof of a growing phenomenon of young girls dissatisfied
with their bodies. According to a recent study, young girls are
becoming increasingly concerned about their weight and are taking
drastic dieting measures even when there is no need. The Canadian
Medical Association Journal study states that by 14, more than half of
girls want to be thinner and are afraid of being overweight.

Experts blame the problem on everything from images of the ultra-thin
in the media and fashion, to dieting parents and peer pressure. Local
children and their parents talked to the Star to voice their own
experiences.

On the verge of starving, Dominique says she often goes an entire day
eating only a piece of fruit, just to stay thin. Standing at 5-foot-6,
she used to be 150 pounds and now she's 114.

"Everybody says she looks great and that's what makes her lose weight,
so I wish people would stop saying it," says her worried mother
Madeline, who is desperate to get help for her daughter. "She won't put
a thing in her mouth because she's afraid to gain weight. She's always
looking in the mirror."

Angela Jardine is the mother of an 11-year-old.

"My daughter pinches her waist and says, `If I can pinch more than an
inch, I need to lose weight.' She likes to be skinny so she can wear
belly shirts," says Jardine. "If somebody chunky is walking down the
street in a short top she would say, `Why are they wearing that and
letting their `flob' hang out?'"

As far as kids are concerned, to be fat is to be an outcast. Gail
McVey, the lead researcher for the recent Canadian Medical Association
Journal study says peer acceptance is critical, especially for girls
who believe in only one acceptable body type.

"I feel sorry for this girl in my class who's fat," says 9-year-old
Gabrielle Segal. "I wonder what it's like to look in the mirror and
think you're fat. I think it must feel really bad."

Her mother Ilana is shocked that her daughter even has a concept of
weight issues at her age. Gabrielle's brother Dan, 7, has picked up on
them, too.

"My sister is so skinny but I'm not," says Dan. "I think I could be
skinnier so now I eat mangos because they're a nice fruit and low fat."

McVey has just completed another study which showed that 24.5 per cent
of a sample of 10- to 14-year-old boys were dieting compared to 31 per
cent of the girls. According to McVey, the message for boys is that
they want a trim and defined physique. Extreme methods of weight
control ‹ including laxatives, diuretics and self-induced vomiting ‹
were actually higher among the boys than girls. A small number of boys
reported taking food supplements and even steroids to gain muscle.

Many children blame the media for their obsessions.

"The media can't get enough of girls whose ribs you can see. If you
watch TV or walk down Queen St., you see models or people trying to
look like models," says Lee Melamed, 14. "That's going to rub off on a
girl no matter what age."

Like many kids her age, Tabatha Goncalves, 11, and her friends read
tween magazines, filled with impossibly perfect celebrities in slinky
clothes.

"We're all like, `Oh my gosh ... I wish I looked like that. I wish I
had her body,'" Tabatha says.

While some try to fit the mould, others, like Jody Steinman, 11, think
it's unnatural.

"I go to a store and try on a million pants that don't fit me. I think
pants are made for anorexic people," Jody says. She points out that
among her peers, in order to be popular, everyone thinks they need to
be small, skinny and wear tight, expensive clothes.

"Girls think their appearance is more important than how they act. One
of my friends sucks in her stomach all the time. She thinks she looks
fat but she's one of the skinniest people I know."

Many girls believe that boys don't want fat girls.

"Sometimes I stand in front of the mirror for an hour fixing myself
because I feel like I'm not good enough for this world," says Tabatha.
"Sometimes just to bug me, guys will be like `you're fat.' I feel like
I have to do something about it."

It doesn't help that tween magazines are filled with so-called diet
miracles, nor does it help that many parents are dissatisfied with
their own bodies and following these same diets.

"My mom is on a diet because she thinks she's fat, too ... I feel like
I should do what my mom does, like diet and exercise, because it's
working for her," says Tabatha.

It's this kind of thinking in kids that Sari Simkins, manager of the
Healthy Lifestyle Program at Toronto Public Health, is trying to alter.
The program, founded by McVey, aims to steer kids away from fixating on
dieting and more into leading a healthy lifestyle.

"We work with children and youth to promote healthy body image by
focusing on positive behaviours, encouraging kids to be active, be well
and be themselves."

Simkins says that supporting more positive behaviour should begin by
changing language like: "You look great. Have you lost weight?" We
should all be thinking about how we contribute to what these girls are
saying to themselves and how our values, attitude and our language are
influencing their thoughts and behaviour.

Having wrestled with her own body image, Dominique has advice for other
kids.

"Just live with what you have," she says. "When you get obsessed with
appearances it takes over your life. It's all you can think about and
all you can do."

--
Diva
******
There is no substitute for the right food