BodyImageHealth.org
Title
BodyImageHealth.org - Promoting Healthy Body Image Attitudes
Description
Significant progress has been made in the past 20 years in understanding body image and dysfunctional eating problems. Unfortunately, we have not seen the same progress in preventing these concerns. As a result, body dissatisfaction among American women is rampant, with as many as 75% of adolescent girls feeling bad about their bodies and 70% saying they feel "fat." In efforts to control or shrink their size, 65 to 75% of females in this country are on a calorie restrictive diet at any given time. Individuals who limit their eating for weight loss frequently miss out on important nutrients, are inevitably preoccupied with hunger pangs, and often feel like "failures" when their cravings for food naturally drive them to satisfaction. If this isn't bad enough, "feeling fat" and "dieting" for weight loss are primary risk factors for eating disorders.
The negative impact of these problems is extending to younger and younger children. Studies report that almost half of 3rd to 6th grade girls now want to be thinner, regardless of size. At a time in their lives when children should feel secure in their body's growth, developing confidence in the habits that will help them to become healthy adults with healthy weights, American kids are pre-occupied with their body size, afraid that food will make them fat, and eat in ways that are detrimental to health and well being.
Confused by their own body angst, many mothers feel insecure about intervening, fearful that their budding daughters might be excluded for taking up too much space. Fathers do not know what to say when their naturally rounding girls ask "am I fat? " Boys are increasingly affected, as the national obsession with avoiding fatness has now become pervasive. No one of any age, gender or size can escape the continual barrage of messages to "lose some weight. "
Contact
- BodyImageHealth.org
-
- North Saint Paul MN
- US 55109
-
- +1.6517799780
