Most girls in Year 10 want to lose weight
Monday 24th January 2011, 2:29PM GMT.
Rosalie, 6, and Sarah, 4, with dad Niek van Zutphen, who said that children who felt secure were less likely to obsess over their appearance. (Picture by Steve Sarre, 1080919)
MANY schoolgirls want to lose weight, according to a Young People’s Survey.
It asked 1,500 pupils in Years 6, 8, 10 and 12, about their behaviour, views and attitudes to life.
And the results from the section on diet showed that 43% of Year 6 girls and 63% of Year 10 girls would like to lose weight.
In contrast, 28% of Year 10 boys said they never considered their health when choosing what to eat.
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There is one effective way to lose weight Ladies, eat less and exercise more…such as helping Mum with the housekeeping….Best Wishes.
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As a parent of a young daughter this is a disturbing statistic that causes me a lot of concern.
When you see the girls that are walking to school every morning, it really makes me wonder what nonsense they are being taught (and by whom) to think they need to lose weight. Some of them look like they haven’t had a decent meal in months.
Fit and healthy is good – encouraging children to develop eating disorders is not. Although the reasons for their development is complex, cultural influence is given as one of the potential factors.
As a society we need to escape from the obsession with weight loss and the mantra that only skinny women are beautiful. We also need to challenge the perception that beauty is purely physical.
Parents need to encourage their children and show them that love and acceptance are not conditional on their waistline.
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Paul Le Page
You must have seen only the slimmer girls on their way to school then.
I have seen many miss piggies locally. It is a sign of the times.
Expat80 has hit the nail on the head. Kids are too quick to turn their noses up, to what’s on offer at meal times, knowing damn well there is cupboards & a fridge full of choice junk food.
It’s parents that buy the food. Many are oblivious to what is a good healthy diet. They need to keep a close eye on their children & monitor weight & shopping choices accordingly.
I had what I was served as a kid. I liked everything. If I was picky I would have gone hungry. Simple as that.
Fat parents usually produce fat kids. How can a child learn from those that can’t be bothered to learn themselves?
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Paul
you hit the nail on the head with “Fit and Healthy is good- Encouraging children to develop eating disorders is not”
This does highlight 2 issues. 1 Children live more sedantry lifestyles than previous generations, due to the plethora of TV channels, and computer games etc, girls sat at home texting all evening. 2 There is a growing tendancy in our society to value looks over substance, watching 5 seconds (which was about all i could stomach) of Britains Top Model will tell you that.
Sad really, just get out and enjoy whats left of your childhood, do some excersice, play netball, whatever, but dont beleive this crap that tells you thinner is better.
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Paul – of course there are some portly young ladies around (I’m not exactly a picture of athletic perfection myself!).
Nobody’s denying that – and yes, a fit and healthy lifestyle should be encouraged but you’re not telling me they represent over 40% of 10-11 year olds and a whopping 60+% of 14-15 year olds, are you?
The problem is that young girls have it hammered into their heads that unless they’re supermodel-thin they’re fat, ugly and unhealthy. In the majority of cases I doubt it’s their GP telling them that either.
It’s total nonsense – some people are simply not “thin” and the only way they’ll get anywhere near this perceived state of “beauty” is to develop an eating disorder.
Frankly, I would rather my daughter to be carrying an extra pound or two of weight and be emotionally healthy and secure in herself.
Better that than have someone so emotionally insecure and frightened of getting “fat” that they starve themselves half to death.
Besides, as I’ve said – there’s more to beauty than a perfect 10 figure.
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Paul Le Page:
You are aware there is an obesity problem in the world? When my tax dollars are spent on fat, greedy, lazy people having medical procedures as a direct result of their gluttony it makes me slightly resentful. No one wants to see children with eating disorders, of course not. But to suggest that we need to escape from the obsession of weight loss is not correct. So far we have not been hard enough on people (the fact that we are an island of fat people is the proof of that). We need to be harder on these people. I suggest we pour scorn on them in the same way some of us like to do to the smokers of the world. I also dislike having to pay for their medical procedures that may not have been needed had they not smoked. Basically, if you are fat and unhealthy you are going to die younger. Hey that’s fine, it’s your choice, but don’t ask me to help fund the cost of having you airlifted out of your house and taken to the hospital in a skip.
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TimDrake – I don’t know how much clearer I can make it! Ormerman has got the point but evidently you haven’t so for your benefit I’ll try again.
I am not talking about clinically obese people here. I repeat I am not talking about clinically obese people.
I’m talking about young girls who are perfectly healthy yet because they are not wafer thin, thanks to the ridiculous message sent to them by popular culture, think they are overweight and ugly when they are nothing of the sort.
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Tim
You are also aware that there is a serious potential problem with girls health due to the prospect of eating disorders due to societys views on idolising thin people??
Are you happy to pay the significant mental health bills caused by eating disorders??
Fat is bad, no-one is denying that, however Stick-Thin is bad too, yet one is idolised, and the other is demonised.
No wonder teenage girls are so confused
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TimDrake (and others) – you may find this link of interest:
http://www.childrenfirst.nhs.uk/teens/health/conditions/a/anorexia_nervosa.html
I particularly note the following quotes:
“in societies that do not associate thinness with attractiveness, eating disorders are rare.”
“Sometimes it can start after someone says something to you about your appearance, which then sparks off the fear of being fat, but that in itself is not the ‘cause’ of anorexia.”
Although neither of these factors are the sole cause of eating disorders, there is little doubt they contribute to them.
As parents (and people in influence over children) we should be particularly careful what we say. Encouraging a healthy lifestyle is a good thing, but it should be done positively – not by lining up children and calling them fat.
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Never thought of mentioning this in my first post….but are we not being too hard on those parents in low paying employment, or single Mums or Dads, all of whom may find the cost of food exhorbitant these days? Isn’t it a fact that good wholesome organic fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, grains, et al costs more than junk food? And where both parents are working, as is the situation in many families today, is there enough time after work to wash, clean, peel and cook good wholesome food or do many families often have to resort to the ‘quick and nasty meal’ of ‘fast food’ etc? Take a look around. Are the kids of wealthy folk who perhaps have only one of the two person marriage working obese or not?
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