Most Teens under 13 have dieted |
A British survey revealed that although only 19
percent of the teenage girls were overweight (as judged by the BMI scales
which are low), 67 percent of them had already been on a diet, 19 percent
had anorexia and/or bulimia and 90 percent of them did not like their bodies
(said slimmer girls have more friends etc). 25 percent of the girls polled had considered drastic means to lose weight
such as surgery or diet pills.In other words, teens are starving themselves at a time when they need MORE vitamins because they are growing, when they are supposed to be being nourished, and this "despite the best efforts of health professionals", said the article. Excuse me - the best efforts of health professionals? Run that by me again. All we hear from health professionals is LOSE WEIGHT and how all illness is caused by "obesity" (which most people don't really suffer from - not if judged by a reasonable scale - and the BMI scale is only reasonable for small boned non muscular women about 5'4" tall). All we see on TV is about how many people are overweight, how overweight people are going to die in a couple of years. All we see in the movies are women who resemble concentration camp prisoners in girth. And we are surprised our kids are taking this literally? What part of "WE ARE TELLING THEM TO DO THIS" doesn't society understand? In Australia, Health care professionals are becoming alarmed - 3 out of 5 teens are UNDERWEIGHT! I talked with a slim man yesterday who described a mild heart attack. But when he went to a respected specialty facility for heart problems, they tested him and sent him home, telling him he had the strongest heart they had ever seen. But why did he have a heart attack then? Well, they didn't know that and were glad to push it under the table. Yes the man is slim but he makes poor high fat food choices and has a lot of stress in his life (workoholic and entrepreneur) so he DEFINITELY has risk factors. And heart attacks are often caused by blockage in the coronary arteries, so although he may have a strong heart, he LIKELY has blockage in the coronary arteries. No wonder so many men die of their first heart attack - one theory says that this is because it was NOT the first but earlier light heart attacks had been ignored. Well, with medical care like that? If the man had been obese, they would have taken him seriously. Society doesn't GET IT - it's sedentary lifestyle and poor food choices and other risk factors which cause health problems and NOT obesity alone! All people suffer in such a society like this. The slim people are misled into thinking that because they are slim, they are healthy, thus allowing real medical problems to go untreated. This often causes people to justify doing something unhealthy to become slim and once slim, they sink in a state of complacency that this will protect them from health problems. And the obese are abused. And then we wonder why our kids are starving themselves and hate their bodies because they cannot conform to air brushed models in magazines? They are doing EXACTLY what we are telling them to do! Sue |