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Healthy kids hurting due to fear of fat
The Leader-Post (Regina) (Sat 19 Jan 2008 Byline: Sharon Kirkey) writes that fears about obesity are feeding so much "fat phobia" that experts worry of an increase in healthy kids obsessing about weight and more parents projecting irrational fears about fat on their children. Some are questioning whether the obesity "epidemic" is even real and whether schools have any business trying to fight obesity. Children are hearing that fat is bad. Period. And where anorexia and bulimia before adolescence was once unheard of, hospitals are now seeing eating disorders in children as young as seven. Families where one or both parents are very involved with their own bodies and with what they're putting into their bodies so that calorie counting, fat gram counting and exercise become a primary focus in the home and at the table. Dr. Ahmed Boachie says many healthy weight teens believe, wrongly, that they're overweight. Even campaigns to rid schools of snacks can lead to negative messages and neurosis about food. But a study of nearly 15,000 girls and boys aged nine to 14 showed that dieting not only doesn't work, it actually leads to weight gain. Kids severely restrict their diet, then lose control and binge or overeat, and the cycle continues. A recent study found that girls who eat at least five meals a week with their family are less likely to be preoccupied with dieting. Signs a child or teen might be engaged in extreme dieting or have an eating disorder include coming home from school and saying they have already eaten, separating themselves from family at mealtimes, and complaining of being cold and tired all the time.
Younger children often don't stop eating completely, but they eat less, or complain their stomach hurts or they're not hungry.
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