from the moment a cartoon titled "I'm fat?" Appeared on a popular site for teenage girls, started by email frenzy. Cartoon nudged fun in a teenage girl who was constantly worried about her weight and felt guilty for eating a satisfying hamburger. But e-mail messages - the highest response to any item already displayed in gurl.com - were requested for help.
"I was going anorexic if I had the bowels," replied a teenager. "I'm at the end of my regrettable rope," said another. Still others ran: "I will not wear a bathing suit in public." "The boys only like me for my body." "I have 5 feet of 6 inches tall and weigh 135 pounds. Am I fat?". Food disorders are the third most common disease among adolescent girls in the United States, according to a 1998 report from the American Medical Association. Even more shocking is a study by the California Department of Health (CDHS), showing that 80% of the fourth grade girls are dieting, statistics that have been echoed in many other places. Instead of reading catcher in the rye or throwing the trumpet or kicking a soccer ball, the girls are counting calories and worried that their thighs are chubby. Boys also have their part of problems. While girls want to become fables, the boys want to become like their muscular shoulders and massive necks.
So, what can parents do to give their children a healthy appreciation for the bodies they have?Very, says Karen Johnson, vice president of the National Women's Organization, sponsor of the annual "love of his body" annual for September 20, 2000. She suggests a twice approach.
First, parents themselves would do well to stop looking in the mirror and say some variation of "I am so fat". "Parents can start accepting their own bodies," says Johnson. "There are many mothers who are defining by what they are not." And parents too, they can fall into this trap.Secondly, she says, parents can give their children a strong dose of skepticism about whether the models on the pages of Sassy, say, represent a realistic ideal. "Models today weigh 23% less than the average woman," says Johnson, citing CDHS statistics. Twenty years ago, models weighed only 8% less. "
Abdomen Fat Loss Diet - Mommy, Am I Fat?
And exactly what do you need for models to keep your faces emaciated, thin-pencil figures and salient collar-clothes? Lauren R. Weinstein, who attracts the "I'm fat?" Cartoon, portrays fictional models that describe in these types of terms: "I am a 16 year old addict," says one, alluding to the appearance of "heroin-chic" similar to WAIF currently popular in fashion ads. "I was surgically changed," says another. As for supposedly fabulous men, these models date, says one of Weinstein models, "they are mainly rich breasts that use me as a symbol of their power."
Debunking the myth that a flat belly is equal to divine happiness is a service for self-conscious adolescents, and thus is to teach children eating habits. According to Barbara Storper, MS, RD, FoodPlay Production Founder, a Northampton, Mass. Company that exhibit performances across the country on healthy eating, the rule is surprisingly simple. "When you're hungry, eat," she says. "When you're full, stop."
"We do not recommend that parents put children on diets," she says. "He sets up a cycle where people are wishing for what they can not eat." Instead, there is healthy food around the house, do not get involved as children are eating, and exercise a part of daily life. Instead of crumbling on the sofa after dinner, she says, why not take a family walk?
As food is inherently tied with comfort, Storper also suggests listening to emotional messages that a child can transmit excesses or triggering. "Try not to judge your children," she says. "Listen really." They may be saying, "You have not been here" or "I'm really hungry for attention."
Encourage children to pursue their interests with passion. The more they love astronomy, the less they are obsessed with desiring they could look like Julia Roberts or Richard Gere. The goal is that they have fun and develop a sense of oneself, says Heather McDonald, one of the founders of Gurl.com and a co-author of a guide called to deal with it! "Encourage them to get involved in things that make them happy," she says. "They should know that exercise is more about the movement that makes you feel good than" I must take that weight "."
As the Cartoonist Weinstein wrote in response to the sad requests she received from her adolescent readers: "Imagine what we could do (and the more fun we would) focus on what we love!"
Jane Meredith Adams wrote to WebMD and numerous national publications, including Boston Globe.
