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Magazines Associated with Unhealthy Dieting in Teen Girls

by Kristen King on January 22nd, 2007

The results are in: Teen girls who read magazines with articles about diet and weight loss are considerably more likely to use unhealthy dieting practices (such as purging, abusing laxatives) both as teens and as adults.

Reports WebMD,

The girls who had most often read magazine articles about dieting and weight loss five years earlier were the most likely to report unhealthy or extreme dieting practices in the follow-up survey.

These girls were twice as likely to engage in unhealthy weight-control behaviors — including fasting, skipping meals, and smoking more cigarettes — as girls who never read such articles.

Extreme weight-control behaviors — including vomiting and using laxatives — were three times as common in the girls who reported frequently reading magazine articles about dieting and weight loss, compared with those who never read such articles.

No such patterns were seen in boys.

So what does this mean? Although reading such magazines doesn’t directly cause unhealthy dieting practices, there’s a strong link. Keep an eye on what you and your daughters are reading, and emphasize healthy behaviors such as regular exercise, healthy snacking, and good portion control.

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POSTED IN: Diet, Health, Parenting, Prevention, Weight Loss, Wellness, Women's Issues