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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 |
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Article: Young, skinny < and obsessed with diets
"Carol Frilegh" wrote in message
... 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. A 13 year old girl, 5' 6" tall, who weighs 114 lbs, is in the "Normal Range" according to the Centers for Disease Control/World Health Organization, with a Body Mass Index of 18.4. At her age, height, and gender she would be in the 31st weight percentile, compared to US averages. Although she is at the low end of normal, and may indeed have an eating disorder, her current weight is not that extreme by comparison. GG http://www.WeightWare.com Your Weight and Health Diary "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 |
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Article: Young, skinny < and obsessed with diets
"Carol Frilegh" wrote in message ... 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 (snipped) The simple, horrible truth about anorexia is, if they do not stop the behavior, they will die. It will kill them. And, if they do stop, they still risk suffering from osteoporosis in old age. Anorexia is growing is some parts of the population. It's growing in younger girls and in young gay males. It's a dreadful addiction that is spurned on by our modern media. Martha |
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Article: Young, skinny < and obsessed with diets
In article , GaryG
wrote: A 13 year old girl, 5' 6" tall, who weighs 114 lbs, is in the "Normal Range" according to the Centers for Disease Control/World Health Organization, with a Body Mass Index of 18.4. At her age, height, and gender she would be in the 31st weight percentile, compared to US averages. Although she is at the low end of normal, and may indeed have an eating disorder, her current weight is not that extreme by comparison. GG http://www.WeightWare.com Your Weight and Health Diary Fitday has that girl off the chart in a blank zone underweight. -- Diva ****** There is no substitute for the right food |
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Article: Young, skinny < and obsessed with diets
This is one of your more stupid posts, Ig. You're scraping the bottom of
the barrel to find something positive to say about a 13 year old girl starving herself to stay stick thin. I wonder what her school work is like the days she only eats the piece of fruit. This is so not what we should want a 13 year old to be doing. "If she lives to old age"? What about the *quality* of her life now and in the immediate future? Tonia "Ignoramus8628" wrote in message ... In article , Carol Frilegh wrote: Young, skinny and obsessed with diets 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. If dominique lives to old age, she would be less likely to have breast cancer than her statistical peers. http://dceg2.cancer.gov/pdfs/mellemkjaer121732001.pdf i |
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Article: Young, skinny < and obsessed with diets
"That T Woman" wrote in message ... This is one of your more stupid posts, Ig. You're scraping the bottom of the barrel to find something positive to say about a 13 year old girl starving herself to stay stick thin. I wonder what her school work is like the days she only eats the piece of fruit. This is so not what we should want a 13 year old to be doing. "If she lives to old age"? What about the *quality* of her life now and in the immediate future? Tonia Since I've kill-filed him, I had not read this post until now. I think he's obsessed with thinness, so it doesn't matter if it will kill the young girl. Hey, she'll be dead and buried, but her breasts will look good! He continues to know zilch about anorexia. As someone who was anorexic and stopped this deadly behavior, his post digusts me. Martha "Ignoramus8628" wrote in message ... In article , Carol Frilegh wrote: Young, skinny and obsessed with diets 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. If dominique lives to old age, she would be less likely to have breast cancer than her statistical peers. http://dceg2.cancer.gov/pdfs/mellemkjaer121732001.pdf i |
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Article: Young, skinny < and obsessed with diets
"Carol Frilegh" wrote in message
... In article , GaryG wrote: A 13 year old girl, 5' 6" tall, who weighs 114 lbs, is in the "Normal Range" according to the Centers for Disease Control/World Health Organization, with a Body Mass Index of 18.4. At her age, height, and gender she would be in the 31st weight percentile, compared to US averages. Although she is at the low end of normal, and may indeed have an eating disorder, her current weight is not that extreme by comparison. GG http://www.WeightWare.com Your Weight and Health Diary Fitday has that girl off the chart in a blank zone underweight. Interesting...I wonder where fitday gets their numbers from? Does their system take into account her age and sex? (I couldn't find anything on their web site). One of the better Body Mass Index sites I've found is Steven Halls, MD. His calculator is he http://www.halls.md/body-mass-index/bmi.htm It's true that some BMI calculators indicate "Underweight" starting around BMI=18.5. But, most of those are for adults...teens tend to naturally run low BMI's. Her weight is in the 31st percentile, which is on the low side, but not abnormally low for her age and height. It sounds like she may have an eating disorder, but based on her weight alone, she may not yet be in a dangerous condition (physically, anyway). GG -- Diva ****** There is no substitute for the right food |
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Article: Young, skinny ‹ and obsessed with diets
Carol Frilegh wrote:
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 snip A decade ago this article would have inspired outrage, but that was before obese toddlers and teen agers with type II diabetes. Steve |
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Article: Young, skinny ‹ and obsessed with diets
"Steve" wrote in message ... Carol Frilegh wrote: 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 snip A decade ago this article would have inspired outrage, but that was before obese toddlers and teen agers with type II diabetes. Steve So we should ignore that some teenagers are starving themselves because some toddlers are obese and some teenagers have diabetes? Can't we be outraged about all the extremes? Tonia |
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Article: Young, skinny ã and obsessed with diets
In article , Steve
wrote: Carol Frilegh wrote: Young, skinny ã and obsessed with diets Weight concerns can as early as 14 Fashion, parents take the blameGirls, and some boys too, unduly concerned about weight snip A decade ago this article would have inspired outrage, but that was before obese toddlers and teen agers with type II diabetes. Steve Once there was a little girl named Alice who fell down the rabbit hole and confronted with a door she couldn't get through nibbled one side of a mushroom and got too tall, then ate from the other side and became too small. Moral of the story: be moderate and realistic or eat zucchini instead of mushrooms! -- Diva ******** Completing 4 years of maintenance |
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