Eating Disorders And Diets example essay topic

Why Teens Shouldn't Diet Dieting can be defined as restricting calories or food groups (Deal with Diets: kids health. org). With the number of obese people growing, it's no wonder that people are starting to diet, and "in 1988, Americans spent 32 billion dollars on diets and diet products (Baird: Women's Health Fact Sheet)". A problem arises when teens start restricting their food, because dieting can be very harmful to a teenager's still-developing body. It can also be harmful to the teen's psychological health as well.

"80% of teen girls are unhappy with their bodies and weight (Community Action: 27% of Teens in Peril from Dieting), and 50% of teen girls incorrectly believe that they are overweight, increasing the likelihood that they will diet (Strauss 741)". Dieting comes with its own host of problems which is why teens should definitely not diet because it can cause obesity, eating disorders, and nutrient deficiencies. Some people may be surprised by the fact that dieting can actually cause obesity later. It seems like a paradox, but it really isn't. When someone else controls the way you eat, it's very natural to rebel. Also, when someone diets, it slows down their metabolism, and when a person starts eating like they used to, the metabolism doesn't have any time to adjust to that, and there is a weight gain.

Plus, dieting lowers a person's blood sugar, which can trigger depression, then trigger binge eating, which leads to weight gain (Drohan 30-32). This may all seem like theory, but there have been two recent studies to explore it further. Harvard Medical School put together a study, testing this theory, and the results were surprising. What they found after testing 8,203 girls and 6,769 boys was that the adolescents who dieted frequently actually gained more weight each year than other children. Both the males and females suffered from the boomerang effect of dieting, and gained, on average, two pounds more than the non-dieters. They then determined that the weight gain was due to the fact that when teens diet, they are restricting themselves.

When a person cuts down on calories, it becomes very hard for them to control the cravings, desires, and the hunger. When they can no longer control themselves, the binge on all the foods that they were craving, which eventually leads to the weight gain (Teen's Diets often Backfire: story. news. yahoo. com). The non dieter obviously felt no need to binge, because they hadn't been restricting themselves in the first place. A person might disagree with these results, citing that it is just common sense that if a person restricts their food intake, they will lose weight. It's not rocket science; it's a well accepted fact. They might also argue that the two pound weight gain was only for special cases, and that didn't happen to the majority of people.

A study done by the University of Texas disagrees. They tested 692 teenage girls from ninth to twelfth grade, and charted their weight by weighing them on a scale, and asking them about their eating habits. What they found after doing a few blind studies was that dieting was proven to be either ineffective in the first place, and actually lead to more weight gain. They concluded that after a four year span, the girls who dieted actually gained an average of three pounds more than the girls who didn't diet. This was not just a select few, but the average. They also believed that restriction had a lot to do with the weight gain (Leslie).

Restricting was the way that the teens dieted, but restriction can lead to a whole host of problems in itself, like eating disorders. Another problem is that when dieting gets out of control, eating disorders occur. "Eighty percent of people who had anorexia or bulimia started with a diet (Drohan 35)". Eating disorders are any one of the various psychological conditions involving abnormal eating habits. Anorexia and bulimia are two major examples of eating disorders.

A teenager with anorexia irrationally believes that she is fat, regardless of how thin she gets. She needs a mastery over her life, and feels a sense of control when saying no to food. So, the girl starves herself, which leads to serious damage to the body and could lead to death (Teens with Eating Disorders: aa cap. org). The symptoms of bulimia are usually different than anorexia. The girl binges on high-calorie foods, and then purges herself of those calories by self-induced vomiting or by using laxatives. This results in dramatic weight fluctuations.

Bulimia can cause dehydration, hormonal imbalance, depletion of important minerals, and damage to vital organs (Teens with Eating Disorders: aa cap. org). Health problems from eating disorders would be too much weight loss, loss of menstrual periods, loss of energy, dental problems, skin problems, constipation, stomach pain, low blood pressure, dry skin, irregular heart beat, hair growth all over body, osteoporosis, depression, and many more (Baird: Women's Health Fact Sheet). One might argue, what do eating disorders have to do with dieting? A person could think that eating disorders don't come from dieting, but from other sources. When a girl sees images of the perfect body, she will develop an eating disorder in order to look like that image, or a girl could have someone telling them how fat she is, so she decides to stop eating. Women don't start with a diet, they know exactly what they are doing when they are not eating, or making themselves throw up, and it isn't because they started to diet, it's because of something else.

This is just not true. These factors might have a lot to do with the eating disorder, but "thirty-five percent of normal dieters will go on to develop severely disturbed food and weight attitudes and behaviors (27%of Teens in Peril from Dieting)". This is just a phenomenal percentage when a person thinks of the millions of teens who are on diets today. It's also a very scary percentage when you think about the fact that teenagers who develop eating disorders are at a high risk for other emotional problems that linger into early adulthood (Morelli). Not to mention that eating disorders and diets can cause severe nutrient deficiencies.

"Adolescents' diet habits are often influenced by social pressures to achieve cultural ideals of thinness, demonstrate athletic prowess, gain peer acceptance, or assert independence from parental authority (Trends in teen nutrition: kid source. com)". These choices are usually not healthy, and teens think that if they eat a certain type of food, or not eat a certain type of food, they will lose weight, and be healthy. Many teens cut things like milk out of their diets, because they think that milk is fattening. The truth is that milk provides us with an excellent source of calcium, as well as protein, and vitamins A & D. If a teen doesn't get a lot of calcium now, they are setting themselves up for osteoporosis later. Teens also think that skipping meals will aid in their weight loss, but it only aids in making the teen unhealthier, and more deprived of nutrients. A study conducted by Cereal Partners UK looked at teens and how skipping meals affects their bodies.

Teens skip breakfast thinking that it will help them to lose weight, but the study found that teens who don't eat breakfast, or replace it with a soda or chocolate bar actually have the reaction levels of a seventy-year old by the end of the morning. This will not help the teen with their schoolwork, and not to mention that teens who skip breakfast are likely to eat more later in the day (Importance of Good Breakfast: . com). What they eat later in the day usually isn't healthy, because they are looking for quick energy, often in the form of candy bars or fast food. This is really unhealthy, and it results in a diet that is low in important nutrients, but high in fat (Broihier). When a person forces their body to develop without the necessary vitamins and minerals, they are really harming their bodies, because a teen's body needs more nutrients than an adult's body, because the teen body is repairing cells more quickly, and still growing in some areas. When a teen diets, it only makes this problem worse.

Some people might question the idea that dieting causes nutrient deficiencies because they might think that teens eating more junk food overall is the cause of the deficiency, not the dieting. They may also think that dieting discourages the eating of fattening food, and encourages the eating of fruits and vegetables, which help in weight loss. It has been shown, however, that excessive dieting can deprive a body of calcium, carbohydrates, and many vitamins and minerals ("Excessive dieting"). It is the excessive dieting that does this, not the extra junk food.

Yes, this junk food may cause obesity, but there is no clear evidence that obesity in youth is detrimental later in life. There is, however evidence that dieting in youth is harmful to a person's body (Trends in Teen Nutrition: kid source. com). So, if a teen shouldn't diet, what can they do to have a healthier lifestyle overall? Teens also need to understand that having a good diet is not the same as being on a diet.

Having a good diet consists of eating smaller portions, cutting back on junk food, and eating healthier snacks. They need to realize that if they don't cut out foods completely, but eat things in moderation, they won't have a problem with their weight at all. Teens should also remember to drink lots of water, and cut back on caffeine. They should also drink more milk because Newsweek just studied some findings that the natural calcium in milk might actually help in weight loss and not actually hinder it. Teens also need to remember that exercising is one of the healthier things that they can do for their bodies. Experts recommend at least on hour of exercise each day (Silvia: Battle Freshman 15).

Exercise not only makes a person feel better about their body image, it makes them healthier as well. A person who gets good aerobic exercises every day strengthens their heart muscle, which gives them more energy throughout the day, and can actually make them less tired. A good equation to remember when exercising is; Energy Stored (fat) = Energy In - Energy Used (Weight Loss Guide: . com). This means that a person only stores the fat that they don't use up. If a person exercises one hour a day, they will be using more energy, thus storing less fat, and helping them to reach their desired weight the healthy way. Another big thing that teens can do to stay healthy is to not take diet pills.

This may seem like an easy way to get in shape, but they can be very dangerous, so avoid them at all times (Deal with Diets: kids health. com). Teens just need to realize that if they change their unhealthy lifestyle now they will become much healthier adults and have a better life overall because they are fit, not fat. Overall, dieting can be very dangerous. It can lead to obesity, cause eating disorders, or be the source of nutrient deficiencies.

Teens diet for a variety of reasons, but they really shouldn't, because it really can be detrimental to their health. What teens need to realize now is that if they practice unhealthy eating now, they are setting themselves up for physical and mental problems late in life, which won't help themselves or their loved ones. A teen needs to also identify the reasons why they are thinking of dieting anyway. Yes, it might be because they are obese, but many people incorrectly believe that they are overweight, and there are causes of that, which need to be addressed. Teens diet because they are on a quest for the perfect body, but they need to realize is that their perfect body may not match the body they see on the television or in magazines.

Any teen who starves herself to become thin is only setting herself up for disaster. Teens just need to try to accept themselves for who they are, and then everyone else will accept them also. They need to realize that it's not worth their health to go on a quest for the perfect body that has been airbrushed anyway.