Take a look at this quick PSA from the National Eating Disorders Association, and ask yourself – is this what you want your child thinking?
Continuing with National Eating Disorder Awareness week, this video begs the question – how do we set up a healthy lifestyle for our children without leading them down a path of disordered eating? Here are some tips for all you parents out there:
- Don’t restrict your child from eating when they are hungry. Children actually have a relatively good radar for understanding hunger and satiety cues when not distracted by things like television. This doesn’t mean supplying them with a bag of cookies as a snack, or letting them have a free for all in the kitchen 5 minutes before dinner. But there’s no reason a child shouldn't be allowed to choose a healthy snack (like an apple with peanut butter) if they’re hungry an hour or two before dinner.
- Discuss the media and their perception of what it means to be “beautiful.” Be critical of media messages that say you have to be a certain size or shape to be pretty. Encourage your children to be critical thinkers and assess whether media messages are accurate.
- Compliment your child and build their self-esteem. Be sure to point out aspects of their personality, knowledge, and skills that you are proud of – items outside of appearance.
- Don’t use food as a reward or punishment. We often do this without even realizing it – “If you clean your room, you can have a piece of candy.” Or “You’re in trouble. You can’t have any dessert tonight.” This can create unhealthy relationships with food and eating – use other forms of rewards and punishment instead.
- Model healthy behaviors and positive self-talk. Eat foods that nourish your body, exercise because it keeps you fit, and don’t make negative statements about your body - like “Ugh, I look so fat” - in front of your child (better yet, don’t make those kind of statements period!).
- Create healthy meals for your whole family and encourage positive conversation at meal time. Turn off the television, sit at the table, and make eating a good experience.
- Make exercise a fun family or friend activity. Ride bikes, go hiking, go swimming, play games like tag and capture the flag. Avoid making exercise seem like a chore or dreaded activity.
- Don’t make jokes, rude comments, or other such remarks about overweight people – children catch on very easily and begin to associate weight with value.
- Teach your children to respect people of all colors, shapes, and sizes.
Here's to having happy and healthy families!
What mental illness kills the most people every year?
Eating disorders. These have the highest mortality rate compared to any other mental illness. This week, February 26th through March 3rd, is National Eating Disorders Awareness week. Eating disorders have very little to do with food and dieting, and much more to do with deeper psychological issues like control and low self-esteem. They may exist in conjunction with other issues such as depression or anxiety.
Eating disorders include several different conditions:- Anorexia, which involves self-starvation, excessive weight loss, and irregular eating patterns
- Bulimia, a cyclical disease of binging and purging. Purging may involve vomiting, laxative use, or over-exercising
- Binge eating disorder, in which the individual has impulsive or uncontrollable food binges but does not purge afterward (though there may be fasts or dieting sometimes)
- Other disordered eating patterns which may not fit the criteria above but still involve unhealthy relationships with food.
Think eating disorders only affect adults? Nope. According to the National Eating Disorders Association, the average age at onset for anorexia is 17 years, and for bulimia it’s the mid to late teens to early 20s. Eating disorders have been diagnosed in children as young as 7 or 8 years, and many times the behaviors start in early adolescence but are not diagnosed or recognized for several years. Up to 15% of US teens and women in their 20s may be suffering from anorexia.
Eating disorders can arise from a combination of biological, behavioral, psychological, emotional, interpersonal, and social factors. Some of the factors in the psychological and interpersonal areas include low self-esteem, difficulty expressing emotions, a history of being teased or ridiculed based on weight/body size, and feelings of inadequacy. Social factors include views of the “perfect body” in media and glorified thinness.
In the February 2012 issue of Fitness magazine, they included the answers that women gave to this survey question: “What do you think when you look at yourself naked?”
The answers were as follows:
- 24% of women chose the answer “I’m not perfect, but I look pretty good.”
- 29% of women chose the answer “I wish I were more toned and less jiggly.”
- 28% of women chose the answer “I look fat.”
We need to work on changing those numbers! 57% of us shouldn’t be unhappy with the way we look. The National Eating Disorders Awareness group talks about preventing the 3Ds, and I think this is a great message to focus on:
Stop
dieting. Stop the
drive for thinness. Stop body
dissatisfaction. Let’s nourish ourselves properly, stop beating ourselves up, and focus on what our body does for us, rather than hating how it looks. Be proud of yourself and your body, and treat it right!
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