That's the advice Arlene Nugent gives to young girls who think they have to be super-thin to be beautiful. Nugent entered the Miss Northern Ireland beauty pageant in an attempt to "beat down the size zero craze..."

"'...I just want young girls to realize that beauty is all about how you feel about yourself, and that includes being healthy. If you feel comfortable and content with yourself then people can see that as well. I wouldn't change anything about myself. I like my size. I'm so happy and so content and I have never had any problems with it. I like to say to myself "Curves are hot... zero is not."'"

Though Arlene didn't win the pageant, she placed in the final five. She hopes the exposure she gained by entering the Miss Northern Ireland contest will lead to a career in modeling. Read more at BelfastTelegraph.co.uk.

Labels: media_influences, role_models, self-esteem

Sammi Grunspan, now 20 years old, was barely a teenager when she developed an eating disorder. Having been overweight practically her entire life, she began taking laxatives to control her weight high school. Still, she continued to gain weight until - while attending a seminary school in Israel - she met a woman who helped her develop a plan that worked.

"Grunspan has successfully followed the diet for the past year. She is down to 160 pounds, which is just 10 to 15 pounds short of her goal."

She admits that she still struggles to eat properly and not resort to laxatives or other unhealthy means to lose weight. It's a battle she fights every time she sits down to eat. But with the support of family and friends, she's winning the battle.

Read more at ClevelandJewishNews.com.

Unsure of what's troubling your teenager? A residential treatment center like the Aspen Institute for Behavioral Assessment can help find the underlying issues your teenager is dealing with.

Labels: healthy_eating, support, treatment

An estimated 165,000 people in the U.K. have eating disorders. Of those, an estimated 10% die as a result of their illness, but some experts believe that percentage could be even higher.

"The emphasis on super-thin models has been blamed for the increase in eating disorders. Experts say that these can have an effect on how people perceive themselves, but the causes of eating disorders are usually more complex and are linked to general feelings of self-worth."

An estimated 5% of the girls in the U.K. are believed to have anorexia. Bulimia is thought to be three times more common. Read more online.

Outdoor therapy can help teens who don't respond to traditional therapy. Learn more about outdoor wilderness therapy at WildernessProgramsInfo.com.

Labels: body_image, death, self-esteem

Teens who like their bodies also like themselves, according to a new study by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

"For many teenagers, how they feel about their bodies and how they feel about themselves are nearly identical," Dr. Eliana Perrin, author of the study, said in her presentation at the Pediatric Academic Societies annual meeting May 5.

Dr. Perrin surveyed 1000 students in seventh and eighth grade about issues like self-esteem, depression, self-perceived attractiveness, athleticism, media exposure, ethnic identification, and desire to lose weight. The only exception to the rule of "high body satisfaction is linked to high self-esteem" occurred among African-American boys, who seemed to be able to separate the two factors.

Teens with low self-esteem often lash out at family and authority figures in frustration with themselves. Learn more about troubled teens and find help for parents of troubled teens at ByParents-forParents.com.

Labels: body_image, depression, self-esteem

May is Mental Health Awareness Month - a good time to begin setting the record straight about mental illness like depression and eating disorders.

"The National Institute of Mental Health estimates that in any year one in four Americans suffer from some diagnosable mental illness."

Many people fail to seek treatment, out of embarrassment or shame, even though most mental health issues are very treatable. Read more online.

Teenagers suffering from an eating disorder, depression, or other forms of mental illness can significantly benefit from a residential treatment center. A residential treatment center like The Aspen Institute can provide an assessment and treatment plan for teens struggling with a variety of issues, including substance abuse and learning disabilities.

Labels: mental_health, mental_illness, treatment

The messages given by parents and peers are strong influencers in a young girl's self-image. Over the years, studies have found that, while the media does exert influence, the opinions of parents and other adolescents also affect a girl's opinion of her appearance.

"Pike & Rodin (1991) found that mothers whose daughters were eating disordered were themselves more eating disorders, and thought that their daughters should lose more weight than the mothers of non-eating disordered girls."

Family support of weight acceptance and appearance has been reported as an important factor in a girl's overall self-acceptance and self-esteem.

Read more at About-Face.org.

Labels: media_influences, parents, self-image_issues

Rexanne Mancini, freelance writer and mother of two, says that she's concerned about the number of pre-teen girls she knows who think they're fat or need to be on a diet. Oftentimes, this mindset comes from mom and or dad telling a child as young as 8 that she's overweight.

"Eating disorders are almost as common as acne in teenagers today. These can create many health problems, not the least of which is potential death. Try telling a 15-year old girl that she's not fat after her mother or both parents have been urging her to diet from the time she was old enough to dress herself."

Mancini reminds parents that pre-teen girls may be short and plump, because they haven’t had any growth spurts yet - which is perfectly normal. She also reminds parents that attitudes about food, dieting and body image are learned when children are very young, and will be with them for the rest of their lives. Read more at ParentingIdeas.org.

Labels: causes of eating disorders, dieting, pre-teens

A study released today shows that eating disorders among Australians have increased from two percent ten years ago to almost five perfect today. Though extreme disorders like anorexia remained fairly stable, there was a sharp rise in so-called "minor" eating disorders.

"The study showed the number of people with regular eating disordered behavior - those who binged or displayed other extreme weight control problems at least weekly - had ballooned from 4.7 percent to 11 percent. And the people considered to have a full-blown eating disorder grew from two percent to 4.6 percent over the decade."

Unspecified eating disorders like fasting, purging and the use of laxatives were of special concern. Read more at News.com.au.

Labels: causes of eating disorders, diagnosis, research

Manon Slome is the curator of the Chelsea Art Museum in New York. She's recently put together a multi-media collection titled Dangerous Beauty which consists of video, photographs, paintings, sculptures and a bathroom scale.

"Curator Manon Slome says the purpose of the exhibit was to create a little anxiety for the audience. 'People are scared to be weighed in public and that's why I want to have this at the beginning of the show to create a sense of anxiety which I feel is the result of the beauty industry.'"

The exhibit includes a straitjacket covered in artificial nails, and a series of photographs that document a women's forehead implant surgery. Curator Slome hopes the exhibit will change people's perceptions by showing the high cost of paid by those who to adhere to society's strict definition of "beauty".

Read more at VOANews.com.

Labels: art, awareness, society

Recent studies have some in the medical community raising their eyebrows and asking hard questions. The studies focus on a type of "diet" called Calorie Restriction and claim that reducing caloric intake may slow down the aging process. But is Calorie Restriction actually an unrecognized type of eating disorder?

"Although we don't know yet whether the longevity benefits extend to humans, a number of people have put themselves on draconian diets in the hope of living loner. They refer to their regimen as CR (calorie restriction) or CRON (calorie restriction with optimal nutrition), and they call themselves CRONies... Like anorexics, CRONies discover in starvation an apparent solution to their problems: a source of energy (at least at first), a sense of purpose, and relief from stress."

Thus far, no one from the eating disorder field has adequately explained the difference between calorie restriction and anorexia; why one is an accepted type of diet while the other is an eating disorder.

Read more at Slate.com.

Labels: anorexia, calorie_restriction, dieting

Boys, men, and some ethnicities may cause doctors to overlook the possibility of eating disorders among these groups, according to researchers at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital and the Stanford University School of Medicine.

"'We need to think more broadly about who struggles with eating disorders,' said adolescent medicine and eating disorder specialist Rebecka Peebles, MD, instructor in pediatrics (adolescent medicine). Peebles pointed out that diagnostic and even treatment criteria were developed with Caucasian women or girls in mind. 'We may not be asking the right questions for these other groups at all.'"

One of the studies conducted by Peebles surveyed the differences in eating disorders among boys and girls ages 8 to nineteen. The most common "alarm" for eating disorders is an expressed desire to be thin - but most boys express a desire to be healthy, not necessarily thin. And they aren't as likely as girls to starve themselves, but instead resort to over-exercising and severely limiting food intake, which can create the same damaging results. Read more at Huliq.com.

Labels: boys, diagnosis, treatment

A new national survey by Harvard University of 3,000 people indicates that eating disorders are more common among males than people may think.

Researchers found that 25% of all those suffering from anorexia and bulimia and 40% of binge eaters are boys and men.

Most people associate eating disorders with females, which is the reason that parents, doctors, coaches and others do not identify such problems in boys. Males with eating disorders have a different motivation. Girls want to be thin and beautiful; boys want to be fit and "buff." Males often develop eating disorders to meet weight requirements for sports like wrestling or for military service.

The researchers also found that males are more likely to be overweight and older than girls are when they develop such disorders.

Labels: manorexia, motivation, sports