Overweight Children Face Stigma

The July issue of Psych Bulletin has an article which indicates that overweight children are teased by their peers as early as age 3. They face bias from their parents and teachers, giving them a quality of life comparable to people with cancer, a new analysis concludes. Children who report teasing, rejection, bullying and other types of abuse because of their weight are two to three times more likely to report suicidal thoughts as well as to suffer from other health issues such as high blood pressure and eating disorders, researchers said.

Even with a growing percentage of overweight people, the stigma shows no signs of subsiding, due to the fact that television and other media continue to reinforce negative stereotypes.

Children as young as 3 are more likely to consider overweight peers to be mean, stupid, ugly and sloppy. A growing body of research shows that parents and educators are also biased against heavy children. In a 1999 study of 115 middle and high school teachers, 20 percent said they believed obese people are untidy, less likely to succeed and more emotional.

Eating disorder education programs are really harmful

A new article in the International Journal of Eating Disorders suggests that teaching teenagers about eating disorders can make them more knowledgeable about the problem, but it may also make them more likely to engage in eating disorders behaviors.

Yale University researchers found that when they presented female high school students with videos on eating disorders, it met the intended goal of boosting their knowledge about anorexia and bulimia.

However, the team saw that the students didn't necessarily find the results of eating disorders unappealing. Teens who watched a video featuring a woman recovering from an eating disorder became more likely to view girls with eating disorders as "very pretty," and some thought it would be "nice to look like" the woman in the video.

The findings suggest that more research should go into the unintended effects of eating disorder education before such programs are widely used, the researchers conclude in their article in the International Journal of Eating Disorders.

Marlene B. Schwartz (the principal investigator) suggested that having an attractive, articulate woman talk about her eating disorder could inadvertently "glamorize" the condition.

• 376 female high school students viewed one of two videos on eating disorders.
• Both videos were the same, except for the "presenter." In one video, the presenter was a young woman identified as a doctor, who told the story of a typical eating disorder patient; in the other, the woman was a "recovered eating disorder patient" who described her personal experience.
• The students completed questionnaires before and after the video.
• Overall, the study found, both videos increased the girls' knowledge about anorexia and bulimia.
• Regardless of which video they saw, the girls were more likely to say afterward that "it's not that hard" to recover from an eating disorder. They were also more likely to believe girls with eating disorders have "strong" personalities.
• Girls who viewed the video featuring the eating disorder patient were particularly likely to see women with anorexia or bulimia in a positive light.
  

Some of the discussions of the article suggested that instead of targeting "anti-eating disorders" programs, schools should address eating disorders by promoting healthy eating, exercise and positive body image, and discouraging "weight bias" and teasing based on physical appearance.

In general, I think that this is a correct view to espouse. In essence, by developing eating disorders prevention videos, we are focusing on the elimination of behaviors (or future behaviors) without teaching new behaviors.

APA Report: Sexualization of Girls in Media is a Problem

The American Psychological Association (APA) suggests that the proliferation of sexual images of girls and young women in the media is harming their self-image and development.

It is surprising that it took the APA until 2007 to come up with this finding. I would have though that this would have been news in 1980. I am curious to know how much money APA spent on this study, and what percentage of my dues contributed to this area. Nevertheless, despite my cynicism, there are a few interesting findings:

• The report suggests that the volume of sexualized images has increased as more media content exists over a wider range of accessible technologies (Youtube.com, myspace.com, etc.) leading to increased exposure and pressure on young girls.
• They also looked at the way products are sold and advertised to young girls.The Task Force described sexualization as: "when a person's value comes only from her/his sexual appeal or behavior, to the exclusion of other characteristics, and when a person is sexually objectified, e.g., made into a thing for another's sexual use." They looked at people like Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera
• Instead of simply blaming the media, the APA also looked at the attitudes of family members as a source of resilience or harm.
• The report suggests that the sexualization of girls impedes the healthy development of a girl or young woman in several different areas. For example by undermining her confidence and making her feel dissatisfied with her body, this can result in negative self-image and lead to feelings of shame, anxiety, eating disorders, depression and low self-esteem

I am also curious - is the APA looking at boys as closely as it is looking at girls. Boys make up a multitude of disorders as well. Don't get me wrong - we need to look at girls, but don't stop looking at boys...

Anna Nicole Smith and "Failure to Thrive"

A legal document written by Anna Nicole Smith's former nanny, Quethlie Alexis, in December has been leaked and it contains multiple accusations about Anna Nicole (aka Vickie Marshall), among them a claim she dangerously starved Dannielynn because "She wanted her baby to be 'sexy'." One of the the accusations in the sworn affidavit include:

• Alexis was ordered to "underfeed" Dannielynn because "Ms. Marshall was obsessed with making sure that her baby was 'sexy.' Ms. Marshall knew that the correct amount of baby food was 3 ounces every 3 hours ... Ms. Marshall insisted that the maximum I was to give was 2.5 ounces. Dannielynn is badly underweight and not thriving, as a baby should."

The discussions are currently focusing on the fact that Smith's baby has not thrived the way that she should have. This condition is referred to as "Failure to Thrive" or FTT.

FTT is defined as the inadequate intake of calories by an infant, oftentimes through purposeful or inadvertent environmental deprivation. There is some evidence that parents who have had insecure family relationships as well as concerns regarding obesity may limit their infant's intake by 60% - 90% of actual caloric intake. Keep in mind, that some very real issues, that are often not under parents' control (such as poverty and lack of food resources) may also lead to FTT as well.

FTT is associated with global deficits in later social and cognitive development.

In essence, this is something which should have been expected. While I disagree with the glamorization of Smith's death, I do think that the media need to discuss this aspect

Behavioral techniques uses to influence children's eating habits

Researchers in London have developed a program to influence children's eating habits using behavioral application techniques. The program was funded by the Irish government, the European Union Commission, and Unilever.

• They created an educational video program called "Food Dudes" that relies on peer pressure, peer modeling, and a reward system to persuade kids to eat more fruit and vegetables and shun fatty foods.
• The Food Dudes video stars a quartet of preadolescent kids who get superpowers from eating fruits and vegetables. The dudes battle General Junk, who steals healthy food, thereby robbing the world of its life force.
• The Food Dudes are slightly older than the kids targeted in the program, making them believable role models. Prizes like small toys, pencils and pens are also an enticement.
• "In some respects, we use the same techniques as multinationals selling junk food" said Dr. Fergus Lowe, a University of Wales psychologist who was part of the team that devised the program.
• A pilot program at 150 schools in Ireland, targeting children aged 2 to 11, doubled intake of fruit and vegetables and in some cases boosted consumption of such foods by 10 to 14 times, the organizers say.
• In one primary school, the fruit consumption of children aged five and six more than doubled. The kids were originally only eating 28 percent of their fruit; six months later they were eating nearly 60 percent. Vegetable consumption jumped from eight percent to 32 percent.
• In a control school, where the program was not used, no change in fruit or vegetable consumption was noted.
• Scotland has introduced a modified version of the program in 210 schools in Glasgow, and England is experimenting with the Food Dudes in schools in London and Plymouth. The World Health Organization recently honored Food Dudes with a best practices award.
  "People had assumed that it would be very difficult to make fruits and vegetables appealing to children, but Food Dudes has proven that that's not true," said Dr. Francesco Branca, WHO's European adviser for nutrition and food security, who is not involved in the Food Dudes program.
• In 2005, the government announced it would ban school cafeterias from serving poor-quality hamburgers and hot dogs. From this September, vending machines selling soft drinks, chocolate bars and potato chips to students will be outlawed. The poor quality of school food first rose to the national consciousness thanks to Oliver's TV series "Jamie's School Dinners," which shocked Britons by showing them exactly what kids were eating at school.
• Changing food habits isn't easy. Humans are genetically predisposed to prefer sugary and fatty foods - an evolutionary twist that made sense in prehistoric times but not anymore.
  "Back when we lived in caves and children were crawling in forests, anything that tasted sweet was generally safe to eat," said Paul Sacher, a dietitian at London's Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children. High-fat foods were also desirable because they were good sources of energy. "Today, evolutionary tendencies are actually our worst enemy," said Sacher. "We're beyond the stage where we have to be that careful, yet we still have this natural desire for sweet things."

Physiological Roots for Emotional Eating

I guess that the last few posts have dealt with eating issues and pathology, so I guess that this one is no exception - this posting and this link merely highlight the fact that the emotional eating of "comfort foods" is physiologically based (keep in mind that the link is a summary of previous research articles and not an actual study). The process follows this course:

1. When the body starts to feel stress, certain hormones like cortisol are released.
2. It's those hormones that then make comfort foods actually taste better, sparking cravings.
3. It is the fatty foods and the sugar-laden foods that tend to help lower those stress hormones, only temporarily. This represents an inappropriate, inadequate response to stress, as it is very short term.
4. Individuals with excess belly fat have an exaggerated response to cortisol which may be why it's difficult for some to lose that weight in the midsection.
5. Researchers have also found that exercise, meditation, and massage can be useful in a weight-loss strategy because they keep stress levels from peaking which keeps people out of the junk food.

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