In the News
Offhand weight comment can trigger eating disorder
©The Canadian Press
TORONTO -- Shayla Gutterman received treatment for an eating disorder a few years ago, and sounds confident and wise beyond her 19 years when she offers advice to parents and other teens who might be at risk.
"One hundred per cent, I would say get rid of the scale," said Gutterman, now a second-year student at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ont.
"You can't really tell whether you're fat or skinny from a scale. It's about how you feel and it's about your body structure. And you can be muscular and fit, and weigh more than someone who's not. So I think the scale throws people off hugely."
Gutterman said her earliest memories of being concerned about her weight go back to when she was in Grade 1. When she was about 13, she began restricting her food intake while she was at a "sleep away" summer camp for about a month.
"And that was for me a good opportunity to, I guess, lose some weight. So I started at camp, and it got to the point where I was fainting."
Her eating habits reverted to normal when she returned home, although she would go through phases - a week here and there - when she would again limit her eating. In Grade 11, though, as her family prepared for a winter trip to Mexico, she said it served as a trigger to make her really want to lose weight.
"So I started then, and it was at that point that laxatives and diet pills, and exercise and purging entered the equation. It definitely got worse," she said.
Her mother, who knew about the dieting but didn't realize what else was going on, said Shayla eventually sought help - which often isn't the case with someone suffering from anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa.
"She actually came to me and said to me, 'I am really unhappy,"' said Anita Gutterman, who lives in Thornhill, Ont.
"She was hiding it and it wasn't overt, and it usually isn't. And she said, 'I'm not just losing weight, I'm really not eating, and it's escalated into a problem, and I need you to help me."'
"And I am so fortunate that she did that because many girls - they don't want to get better, they don't want the help. They don't admit it."
After seeking help from a family doctor and other health care professionals, Shayla said she was "very lucky" to get into a day treatment program at Southlake Regional Health Centre in Newmarket, Ont.
"There you are really forced to have three meals and two snacks a day, and that was intervention for me," she said, adding that she had to stop taking laxatives and diet pills, and limit exercise.
Dr. Ahmed Boachie, director of the eating disorder program at Southlake, said society is so slim-obsessed that some young people wrongly believe they're overweight, and worry about becoming obese.
"And what has happened, some of them can actually be so preoccupied with food and food-related issues, and in their fight to avoid being obese some of them are actually starting off as normal weight, and some of them are actually underweight," he said.
"In trying to avoid being obese, they stop eating and they can develop eating disorders - anorexia or bulimia, which are two of the most devastating chronic illnesses."
Up to 20 per cent of people with these illnesses will die if they don't receive proper treatment, he said.
There isn't one particular thing that causes an eating disorder, said Boachie, a child psychiatrist who has been at the centre for six years.
Sometimes a casual comment by a friend, such as "It looks like you've gained weight," will act as a trigger.
"If you say that to the majority of young people, they may probably be able to brush this off," Boachie said. "But there are always a lot of people who have vulnerabilities. And this statement, which may seem innocent, may send them spiralling."
Those who inherit perfectionistic tendencies are at greater risk, he noted. And only one boy for every 10 girls develops an eating disorder.
Parents who diet frequently could be a factor, he said, along with not having good friends or having bad days at school.
Kate Lum, volunteer co-ordinator at Sheena's Place, a support centre in downtown Toronto, said they're hearing about more younger and older females with the condition "due to the cultural insanity around expectations about how women should look."
It's very difficult for a teenager to resist the onslaught of perfect-looking and "unhelpful" images shown on television and elsewhere, she said.
Shayla Gutterman said magazine photos can affect her.
"Even still, I try to stay away from magazines because I know, looking at them, it's not going to make me feel good," she said.
And when she hears anyone make a comment about someone else's weight: "I hate it. I can't stand it."
In terms of treatment, Lum, a survivor of anorexia, said the person really does need to want to get better, and when friends say something like "Why don't you just eat? You're too thin," it doesn't help.
Lum said those sorts of comments made her think "You're just jealous" or "You're not my friend. You're trying to sabotage this."
The incidence of eating disorders in North American teens is between 0.5 and one per cent, said Boachie.
At Southlake, teens aged 13 to 18 who are in the day program are reintroduced to food with the encouragement of dietitians and a team of trained professionals.
"We are not only looking for them to finish their meals, it's how they eat, the behaviours around food, what food represents," Boachie explained.
"They attempt to cut it into pieces. Sometimes you can watch somebody eating, and they can tell you how difficult the eating disorder is by watching their behaviour."
"Food is their medication," he said.
"We make sure they finish everything on their plate. Every meal is measured so that they can finish it."
Talking helps, too. Besides nutritional intake, the family-focused program includes an ongoing medical assessment, and discussions about body image, self-esteem and anxiety issues.
"Up to about 70 per cent of them will get really well," Boachie said. "And then the other 30 per cent, a few of them will come back again and revisit the program."
There are waiting lists for many programs across Canada, according to Lum, but Sheena's Place will put people into a support group right away so they can "stabilize a little" until treatment is available. Some people make use of private clinics in Canada and the U.S. because they can't wait for a spot at a place like Southlake, she said.
Shayla Gutterman recommended that parents focus on balanced diet and health, rather than make comments like "Don't eat this, it's bad for you" or "This is fattening."
"Do what makes you feel good."
"I think it's always going to be a struggle," she said of her own battle with an eating disorder. "I'm OK now, though. I do what I can to stay happy."
Anorexia can take 25 years off life: report
Doctors hope findings will bring awareness to disorder
By Tom Blackwell
©National Post
Anxious to highlight the gravity of an often-overlooked disorder, Canadian doctors have calculated that women with anorexia die on average about a quarter of a century earlier than other women.
The B.C. specialists who published the research this month say they hope their dramatic life-expectancy statistics will both motivate anorexia patients to get better, and spur governments to more generously fund work on the condition.
Their number-crunching revealed, for instance, that a woman who develops the disorder at age 15 will live on average to age 56 - 25 years less than the average Canadian female.
"Anorexia nervosa is basically not recognized as a serious disease by society and government, in my opinion, certainly not compared to heart disease and cancer," said Dr. Laird Birmingham, the University of British Columbia psychiatry professor who led the research.
"Most people have a picture of supermodels who lose too much weight because of dieting and think ‘How pathetic is that?' "
The findings might also counter a stigma that has turned the disease into a "modern-day leprosy," he said.
Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder whose sufferers typically refuse to keep their body weight within 15% of normal, have an intense fear of gaining weight and a distorted body image, and have missed at least three consecutive menstrual cycles because of their weight loss.
About half those who die commit suicide, while the rest succumb to medical problems, often out-of-control heart rhythms related to their brain abnormalities.
The mortality rate has been pegged previously at about 5%, but no one had worked out the actual life expectancy of anorexics, said the article in the journal Eating and Weight Disorders.
The researchers analyzed mortality statistics for 954 anorexia patients in B.C. over a 20-year period ending in July, 2000, using "decision analysis" software that compares such outcomes as death or illness in different groups.
Depending on the age - from 10 to 40 - when the women developed anorexia, their life expectancy was reduced on average by 22 to 25 years, the study concluded.
The numbers are averages, meaning that many patients who make full recoveries in treatment can expect a normal life span, said Dr. Birmingham.
Dr. Leora Pinhas, psychiatric director of the eating-disorders clinic at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children, said she was not surprised by the statistics, and agreed it could help draw much-needed attention to the seriousness of the disorder.
"It's a psychiatric disorder that cuts years off people's lives, that kills people," she said. "That's not how people usually see mental-health disorders. It's a really acute, serious illness and it's interesting to me how calm people are about that."
A shortage of money and personnel in the field means that specialists are "constantly reeling under the workload" and patients can wait as long as eight months to get treatment, Dr. Pinhas said.
The disease is sometimes given short shrift because of a misconception that it results simply from personal lifestyle choices or the influence of family, said Dr. Birmingham.
There is mounting evidence, though, that patients have a genetic predisposition to the condition, and that their brains act abnormally, he said.
Imaging has shown, for instance, that fear centres in the brains of anorexics "light up" when they are asked to eat food, the psychiatrist said.
Dr. Pinhas said she sees the disease as caused by a combination of biological factors and psycho-social influences, such as a culture that encourages people to lose weight.
Meanwhile, Dr. Birmingham has started telling patients about the life expectancy figures to drive home the gravity of their problem.
"What this says is ‘I have to get better or my life is going to be a lot shorter.' “
Regarding Ourselves
Self-absorption just isn't good for you
By Dr. Brett Taylor
©CBC
Narcissus was the character from Greek mythology who fell in love with his own reflection and subsequently suffered one of a variety of tragic deaths, depending on which version of the tale you listen to. In the modern world, the metaphor of Narcissus would have less to do with love and more to do with a deep-rooted anxiety, the sort of social angst that an adolescent feels just before entering his first dance. An iterative process of self-assessment mixed with a generous helping of self-loathing.
Too fat? Too skinny? Too many zits? Dated clothes? Because we incorporate the message that "image" equals "rank in the pecking order," we have become a body-image-obsessed society, seeking a perfection that generally remains just out of reach.
The moral of Narcissus, though, that self-absorption just isn't good for you, still rings true today. Negative self-imagery acquired as a child can persist well into adulthood, and might even in some cases be permanent. The problem is that this doesn't appear to be something we have a choice about. Body image may well be a hard-wired human characteristic with extended implications for social rank, personal happiness and even socioeconomic outcomes.
When self-image goes bad, the consequences are significant. Conditions like anorexia nervosa, in which the body image of the patient drives extreme dieting behaviour, are well-known and sometimes fatal illnesses. Self-image, though, is a spectrum; the definition of any particular point on that spectrum as "illness" is largely socially determined.
What constitutes sick?
Walk into any gym. A small subset of the customers will be trying to sculpt their bodies into shapes that are, truly, quite abnormal by any evolutionary standards. Are people who do this "sick"? Or do they just have a different aesthetic than the norm? What is the difference, after all, between body sculpting and, say, tattooing?
Suppose, though, that the drive to a "better" body has potential risks; if someone has, for example, cardiac issues or joint disease, but won't stop running? Is she "sick" now?
Extend it further: what about anabolic steroids? Does the willing acceptance of serious potential medical risk just to conform to a particular body aesthetic constitute a mental illness? How is this different from the risks "willingly" taken by anorexia victims?
At what point do we declare the obsession with self-image to be a pathological state?
Pathological exercise is a form of body image disorder, in exactly the same category as anorexia or bulimia, yet we don't often recognize it as such because it is much more socially acceptable to be cut and buff than it is to starve yourself to death. Maybe it is true that the consequences of an obsession are reasonable grounds to convict it as disease; if a false body image results in healthy behaviour, who are we to judge?
Body image vs. reality
The problem, of course, is that individuals with poor body image, despite the realities of body shape, are often more unhappy than controls. Further, approaching an ideal body shape or social status in no way guarantees that body worries will disappear. "Popular" and "attractive" are synonyms for adolescents, yet studies have shown that girls identified by peers as "popular" actually had poorer body images than others. The stress and strain surrounding maintenance of social status is significant for adolescents and adults alike.
Once, body or self-image was thought to be acquired and set in the teen years. It now seems to be far more likely that the construction of body image, like most parameters of self, is far more fluid, probably beginning much earlier than previously thought and persisting well into adulthood. As a pediatrician, I certainly see children as young as six years old who consider themselves "fat" (or "stupid" or "bad"), who have, in other words, begun the process of acquiring a "negative self."
Self-image is another example of a memetic process. A "meme" is an idea, and meme theory states that ideas transmit like viruses, replicate in the minds of susceptible individuals (i.e. in "fertile environments") and evolve as they are modified by their hosts. Self-construction is a very complicated concept, but probably consists of an interplay between many ideas, each of which has to get into and persist in the head of the individual. The whole process is likely guided by various factors. Some, like genetic background, are probably biological, and may act by selecting which ideas will flourish in an individual's mind and which will fail. Children who are depressed, for example, probably have more negative memes than those who aren't; depression is at least partially determined by genetic (biological) factors. Other influences on self-construction are more societal, more informatics-based, and relate to the sort of ideas that are out there to be absorbed in the first place.
In children, the memes that create self-image are provided by media, family and peers. While it is not known just how this all comes together, it is clear that for children, especially adolescents, the memes provided by peers and to some extent media can trump those provided by family. Adolescents appear to select someone to compare themselves to, an attribute to compare, then through a complex process decide just how they measure up. If the answer is negative, self-image can take a big hit. While media is a pervasive advertiser that aggressively shapes the way adolescents think, ultimately it is the peer group that has the biggest effect. For a parent, this means that a fundamental contributor to a child's future happiness is outside of the home, and therefore to some extent, outside parental control.
So how can parents help their children establish and maintain a positive self and body image? Research is sadly lacking. However, my advice is to begin early in childhood, to inoculate your child with positive memes, so that by the time adolescence arrives, he or she is armed and ready.
Common truths of parenting apply here. For the first six or seven years of a child's life, there is no more important evaluator than a parent. Having time to parent well, providing a positive role model, and minimizing criticism while rewarding and reflecting the positive aspects of your child will build confidence and self-esteem. Dedicated time now pays big dividends down the road.
Sports may enhance a positive self-image, but there are a number of potential pitfalls. Success at some sports requires a specific body shape (gymnasts, figure skaters and ballerinas beware). Because of this, kids who aren't the ideal shape may draw negatives instead of the positives from participating. Organized sports may offer your child an opportunity to be accepted by peers, and therefore to be less exposed to the negative comments and bullying that so powerfully degrade self-image. It is important, however, to emphasize the individual objectives and accomplishments of players. This can sometimes be difficult in team sports such as hockey, soccer and basketball because so much of the emphasis is on goal scoring.
Individual sports, like track, running and (my favourite) competitive swimming offer the child the chance to win even when she loses: even if your son doesn't win the race, he can win by setting a best personal time. For a child, competing against self guarantees success, and success at a sport implies at least some degree of satisfaction with body image.
Selection of a sport should be individualized by parents. It is important to start early, say by four or five years of age, to try lots of different sports, and to let your child's successes and inclinations guide you as to whether any one particular sport is right for him. Don't push! Let your child find his or her own way.
Notice just how difficult this process is for children of low-income families. Sport participation is increasingly expensive, and there just isn't that much help out there. The current offering from government, an income-tax deduction for some of the costs of sports programs, is very helpful for those of us who earn a living (and probably don't need the benefit), but useless for those parents too poor to pay much tax in the first place. More needs to be done.
Activity tops dieting
Major impacts on body image in childhood occur because of medically related issues. Children with asthma, for example, can have symptoms that punish them for being active. If you wheeze and cough when you run, you are likely to self-select away from running. You might perceive yourself as being unfit, and eventually this might become true. The vast majority of asthmatic children can exercise just as much as they want. If they wheeze, they should be treated more aggressively so that exercise-induced symptoms don't occur, but in general, they should not be pulled from sports they love because of their lungs (that's in general, talk to your child's doctor about the details in your case). Good control of the asthma is the issue, not cessation of exercise.
Children who are obese are also a special case. Here the challenge is to address the very real health risks of childhood obesity without inducing self-hatred (or eating disorders) in the process. Many different approaches exist for this; mine is to avoid aggressive dieting and focus on exercise. Again, I like swimming and other individual sports, because they offer rewards to the child almost immediately, and if coached properly burn a lot of calories. Nothing hooks a kid like success; if your child gets faster each time she is measured, she will know that she is succeeding. An emphasis on personal bests, heart rate and overall fitness should replace an emphasis on weight, diet and body shape. Teach your child to be delighted with his capabilities and his improvement, and not to focus on his body type.
Finally: bullying. Research into the risk factors for body-image disorder in childhood repeatedly demonstrates how critically important peer relations and opinions are for a child's self image. Bullying in school age and adolescent children may be as detrimental to the psychosocial development of a child as abuse at home. Schools and parent groups have stepped up on this issue over the last two decades, and no-tolerance programs are having an effect. If you are the parent of a kid who is being bullied, your primary role is that of unceasing advocate for the safety and health of your child. Most teachers and principals are well informed on this issue and can be very effective in managing it; don't quit until you get your child's needs met.
There are all sorts of measures that can be used to assess the success of a child; we often look at school marks, or sports performance, or accomplishments in other areas like music and the arts. We emphasize skill set, intelligence, and social capability, all of which are clearly important characteristics of a successful child. But sometimes I think we risk missing the point, that all these measures are really just mechanisms by which true success is achieved. A successful child is one who is happy, and happiness springs from within, from a satisfaction with and confidence regarding self. As parents, teachers and caregivers, we could, and should, put more emphasis on this outcome.
Men 'unhappy' with their bodies
By Anthony Baxter
© BBC 2008
One of Britain's leading eating disorder experts says as many as one in five young men are deeply unhappy with their body image.
Dr John Morgan said that for every man with an eating disorder there were 10 more who desperately wanted to change the way they looked. "One in five young men have some degree of quite extreme distress," he said. Dr Morgan said he had also seen a big rise in the number of men with anorexia and bulimia. Dr Morgan, who runs the Yorkshire Centre for Eating Disorders in Leeds, told the BBC's news programme for teenagers, Revealed, that men who were unhappy with their bodies would like to change them.
Eating disorder
While the official estimate for the number of men with an eating disorder stands at around 10-15% of all sufferers, the real figure is much higher. "We know that 1 in 20 young people suffer from some degree of disordered eating and that at least 15% of them are men and yet that's a tip of an iceberg," he said.
"There are men who have problems with compulsive exercise and excessive bodybuilding who have an illness, but we haven't defined them. Our definitions of illness have been focused on women, rather than men."
In 2000, a report for the Eating Disorder Association found that not enough was being done to help care for men with eating disorders.
Eight years on Dr Morgan says the situation is now worse. "When the report was written there were some units that had dedicated expertise in male eating disorders. A couple of these have now closed down," he explained. "There's a lack of funding, a lack of interest. You're dealing with a situation where you're trying to develop a national service for men across the country, but the Health Service is now more focused on the local."
Seriously ill
At 13, George became seriously ill with anorexia. He says initially doctors didn't spot the problem. He said: "The diagnosis is very vague, especially in boys. It's not something that someone would presume was the case.
"I was tested for cancer, Aids, gluten allergies, and all various things like that, which really, I knew deep down, were completely irrelevant."
George was eventually admitted to a clinic where he was told he had just four weeks to live. His body had started to eat its own muscles and organs to survive. "Anorexia dictates everything you do," George said. "Everything that your healthy mind says is right, 'You can eat this, it wont make you fat at all, in fact, it's completely healthy, it's what normal people do'.
"But then anorexia would jump in straight off and be like - 'What are you doing, this is terrible. You're driven by an evil, deceiving affliction that's not good, it's really wrong'."
Dr John Morgan said he believes images of male beauty in the media are part of the problem, and that there's now just as much pressure on young men to look slim as there is on women. "The ideal male body image has changed into quite an unhealthy shape," he admitted.
Huge pressures
In the past blokes have been comfortable with beer bellies. Now, men and boys are under huge pressures to look good. He explains that while the slim but muscular look, a six-pack, big arms, and a slim waist, has become the cultural 'norm', it's not a naturally obtainable figure.
Dr Morgan added: "It's completely unhealthy, and to achieve that sort of shape you've got to be either working out for hours in a gym, making yourself sick, or taking certain kinds of illegal drugs."
While it's often actors, models and celebrities who are blamed for putting pressure on the rest of us to look slim, it seems stars are under an equally intensifying amount of pressure.
Marcus O'Donovan is an actor who's been in Holby City and the recent Narnia film, Prince Caspian.
He said getting in shape for a role and enjoying a normal life is very difficult. "The pressure is increasing on everyone to look better and better and better," Marcus said. "I like to eat, it's that simple, I love my food, and I do find that I'm quite worried. I have to watch what I eat and make sure that I train. It's quite difficult to balance that and a really happy lifestyle."
The Eating Disorder Charity, BEAT says that since May this year, it's seen a huge increase in the number of men coming forward and asking for help. The charity says it thinks high profiled cases of eating disorders, like John Prescott's battle with bulimia, encourages more men to seek help.
Nov. 2006
Anorexia kills 88-pound Brazilian model
The Associated Press
The death of an anorexic model who weighed just 88 pounds has shocked fashion-conscious Brazil, where many young women dream of becoming the next Gisele Bundchen.Ana Carolina Reston, 21, died Tuesday of generalized infection caused by anorexia nervosa, a disorder characterized by an abnormal fear of becoming obese, a distorted self-image, a persistent aversion to food and severe weight-loss, said officials at Sao Paulo's Servior Publico Hospital."Take care for your children because their loss is irreparable,"
Reston's mother Miriam told the O Globo newspaper."Nothing can make the pain go away. No money in the world is worth the life of your child."Reston began her modelling career at the age of 13 after winning a local beauty contest in her hometown Jundiai, on the outskirts of Sao Paulo."Ever since she was a little girl, she dreamed of becoming a model," her mother said. "She would put on my shoes, dress and makeup and pose."Reston spent the last eight years working as a model for several agencies, includingworking in China, Turkey, Mexico and Japan, local media said."I noticed something was wrong when she returned from Japan," her mother told the Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper."She was too thin … and when I told her to eat something, she would say:`Mom, please don't fight with me. There is nothing wrong with me, I'm fine."'
Afflicted with bulimia Dani Grimaldi, Reston's cousin, said she also suffered from bulimia, a disorder marked by binge eating, followed by vomiting or the use of laxatives." Fifteen minutes after eating she would lock herself in the bathroom and turn on the shower so no one could hear her vomiting," Grimaldi told the Estado de Sao Paulo.The world of high fashion and modelling has long been targeted by critics who say it encourages women and girls to emulate rail-thin models.
In September, a Spanish fashion show responded to such criticism by barring models with a body mass index below 18. Body mass index is a calculation doctors normally apply to study obesity — anyone with an index below 18.5 is considered underweight.Reston, who was 5-feet-8, would have had a body mass index of 13.4 at the time of her death, a calculator on the website of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicated.© The Canadian Press, 2006
Positive body image learned at home
Andrea Gordon, The Toronto Star Sep.25, 2006. 11:36AM
She wasn't the first 18-year-old to arrive home from university 10 pounds heavier. Nor the first to feel self-conscious. But at a family gathering, one adult still couldn't refrain from commenting. "It's good to have you back," she said, patting the girl's backside, "just maybe not quite so much of you." Shock gave way to hurt, followed by a quick flight to the bedroom. Tears were shed. The mother followed with loving words of condolence. But in the end, she said, the woman had only expressed what a lot of people were thinking.
Twenty-five years later, the memory still stings like a fresh slap across the face. Make no mistake about it parents. You can defend it as being "helpful" or "honest." But words — and especially comments about a child's appearance — do damage. Even more so when aimed at impressionable tweens or young teens. A stream of recent studies supports the notion that a healthy self-image begins at home, including an August article in the journal Pediatrics which concludes that family criticism "results in long-lasting, negative effects." But anyone who's ever been on the receiving end of critical remarks about their weight or body shape doesn't need an expert to tell them that. Most of us are quick to blame peer pressure and the constant media blitz promoting skinny female bodies and buff young men for the impossible standards imposed on our kids. But we need to acknowledge that amid all that, the messages from Mom or Dad are more important than ever. They're the ones who can reinforce the notion that feeling good, eating a balanced diet and being physically active count a lot more than where the scale tips.
And yet despite the zillions of books devoted to building kids' self esteem, the pressure on teens to look a certain way and the growing epidemic of eating disorders among young girls, many of us are still sending destructive signals to our kids. Not always intentionally. Not overtly either. But think about it. Have you ever discouraged a daughter from having second helpings while her brother heaps more pasta Bolognese on his plate? Maybe you're a mother who tells your daughter that looks don't matter as much as what's on the inside — but then disparages your own figure or obsesses about kicking the carbs. Or a dad who enthusiastically appraises the svelte models on the car ads. This stuff can have enduring impact. It contributes to lack of self-confidence, unhealthy eating habits or a preoccupation with dieting. It can affect sexual behaviour and intimate relationships down the road. At worst, it could increase the risks of an eating disorder. Ann McKee of Toronto, founder of 5 Elements Camps and Workshops for girls, has seen the effects first-hand — in kids shedding tears of shame because Mom says they're too fat.
In girls obsessed with their looks who are simply following the behaviour modelled by the adults at home. What we do and say matters. A mother who throws on her bathing suit and leaps into the pool even if she isn't thrilled with her body sends one message. So does one who constantly complains about her pant size and counts every calorie. And so does a dad who comments that the "real women" featured on the Dove billboards are too hefty. This is one reason that Dove decided to sponsor mother-daughter workshops on body image. (http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.ca ). Those of us who don't have daughters aren't off the hook either. Boys are also under siege to look fit and fashionable. Steroid use is on the rise. So they need help sorting through how they feel about their looks. And they need the imprint of female role models who feel comfortable in their own skin.
Lisa Naylor of Winnipeg, who counsels adolescent girls and their mothers about eating issues, says the key is teaching kids to approach the whole issue from the inside out. "We're trying to get girls to realize that how they feel about themselves has a huge impact on how they look," says Naylor, who is also conducting the Dove workshops. Her tips include: · Don't single kids out on food issues if you notice one happens to be eating a lot of sweets. Better to reduce the availability of junk food and make more nutritious snacks and meals for everyone. · Don't comment on other people's weight, positively or negatively. · Pay attention. Kids who suddenly crave large amounts or stop eating may need help — whether it's more protein for energy or counselling for emotional problems. And if your teen comes home from university sporting a bigger dress size? Rest assured she doesn't need someone to point it out. Tell her she's always beautiful to you. Then get out your bikes and go for a ride.
Archived News
| Feb. 2006 | Eating Disorder Awareness Week Highlights Lack of Services |
| Dec. 2005 | The sign of a good man: buff and lean Articles from NewsCanada |
| Feb. 2005 | Eating Disorder Awareness: Twenty Years of Service Articles from NewsCanada |
| Feb. 2004 | Canadian Children - Worth Their Weight Articles from NewsCanada |
| Feb. 2003 | The Skinny War on Fat Articles from NewsCanada |
| Feb. 2002 | Extreme Weight Loss Measures Endanger Canada's Youth |
| Feb. 2002 | Eating Disorders Set to Claim Ontario's Youth in Record Numbers |
| Sept. 2001 | Eating Disorders at an All Time High: Help Targets the Most Vulnerable |