Health Wise: Lutheran Woman Today

Every spring, Cassie Hoeprich watched the ritual begin. "Around this time of year, the girls in my school would start freaking out, running to the gym and going on diets because they wanted the ‘perfect’ beach body," says Hoeprich, 18.

Girls would starve themselves into slimness, subsisting on celery and making endless laps around the track. In secret, many would binge on high-calorie sweets and snacks, desperate to ease their gnawing hunger or to fill a perceived emptiness inside. Hoeprich responded by launching an annual "Love Your Body" day and founding Body Aloud, a student-run size-acceptance organization at her San Diego high school.

According to health advocates, both undereating and overeating are fueled by negative body image — a problem so pervasive that a Dole Nutrition Institute poll found that 40 percent of young women would sacrifice a year of their lives if it would guarantee they would remain thin for life. "From magazines that peddle fad diets to ads that feature razor-thin models, our culture teaches girls and women to hate their bodies, no matter whether they’re heavy or thin," says Connie Sobczak, co-founder of The Body Positive, a Berkeley, California, non-profit organization that promotes healthy living. "But by giving girls positive messages and helping them establish healthy patterns, we can teach them to love their bodies despite this negativism."

How do you know that a girl needs help? One sign may be that she’s over eating. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a record 19 percent of children ages 6 to 11 are overweight, as are a record 17 percent of adolescents ages 12 to 19. Being overweight can boost a girl’s risk of asthma, breast cancer, diabetes, heart disease, infertility, and osteoarthritis — and ravage her confidence and self-esteem.

Equally hazardous? Extreme dieting. Weight loss pills, taken by 13 percent of high school girls, can cause anxiety, gas, oily leakage, and poor vitamin absorption. Eating disorders, affecting 1 to 3 percent of girls, can lead to malnutrition, stomach rupture, tooth erosion, and heart, liver, and kidney damage. In 6 percent of cases, reports the American Journal of Psychiatry, anorexia (self-starvation) can lead to premature death.

Patterns of undereating and overeating are not easy to break. Research from the University of Pennsylvania shows that commercial diets don’t work, and a study in the medical journal Lancet shows that most girls who undergo intensive treatment for eating disorders never achieve full recovery.

Since addressing these problems after they start isn’t always effective, health advocates say that we must work to counter negative body image in girls as early as possible so that they stay healthy through adulthood. According to the Journal of Pediatrics, overweight pre-teens are 11 to 30 more times more likely than their peers to be obese when they are older. And according to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Eating Disorders, 86 percent of eating disorders develop before age 20. How can you help girls become body-positive? Here are experts’ top tips:

Know the parameters of healthy weight, defined as a measurement of body mass—

Body Mass Index or BMI. "Even better standards are the ‘healthy at any size’ paradigm or ‘metabolic fitness,’ in which you have healthy blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar levels, regardless of your size," says Sobczak.

During family meals, steer clear of super-sized, sugary, starchy, convenience foods. Follow government guidelines so that everyone gets five to nine servings of fruits and vegetables (along with 30 to 90 minutes of moderate exercise) per day.

Encourage young women to practice "attuned eating" by enjoying food when they’re hungry and stopping when they’re full. Allow girls to eat all the healthy food they want, trusting that their bodies will tell them when they’re satiated.

Watch not only what your teen eats, but what she reads. A University of Minnesota study shows that reading weight loss articles makes a girl three times more likely to engage in dieting practices such as vomiting and taking laxatives.

Show appreciation and respect for diversity, reminding young women how beautiful people are in all their varied shapes, colors, and sizes.

Lobby schools to serve fresh, healthy food in cafeterias; to offer more recess and physical education; and to start body acceptance initiatives like Body- ImageHealth.org, TheBodyPositive.org, and Full of Ourselves (www.mclean.harvard.edu/education/youth).

Slow down and breathe deep. "In many American families today, kids are on the run, parents are juggling two jobs, and people are grabbing food on the go," says Madelyn Fernstrom, director of the University of Pittsburgh’s Weight Management Center. "People are stressed and overeating for relaxation when they need to find it in other ways."

Encourage girls to speak openly and think critically — especially about body image issues.

Watch for signs of eating disorders: irritability, skipping meals, excessive exercising, obsessive calorie counting, anxiety about clothes shopping, withdrawal from social activities, and complaints that the girl — or others — are too fat. "Note that if a girl is bulimic and binging and vomiting, she may not lose weight, but will instead use the bathroom frequently," says Lynn Grefe, CEO of the National Eating Disorders Association.

Watch your own eating attitudes and behaviors. Do you complain about your weight? Talk constantly of dieting? Pay for a brownie with a trip to the gym? Young women around you are absorbing these messages. The message to you is to celebrate your body, loving yourself — and the girls in your life — no matter what shape you’re in.

Molly M. Ginty lives in New York City. Her work has appeared in Ms., Marie Claire, Redbook, and Women’s eNews.

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