Diet Advice in Magazines May Spark Unhealthy Eating Behaviors

[January 3, 2007] For some adolescent girls, potentially fatal eating disorders may have their roots in the pages of glossy magazines.

A new study from the University of Minnesota has found that girls who were frequent readers of magazine articles about dieting and weight loss were more likely to engage in unhealthy weight-control behaviors five years later. The study was published in the medical journal Pediatrics.

"I'm not surprised," says Susan Kraus, a nutritionist with Hackensack University Medical Center, in Hackensack, N.J. "It's an unfortunate situation, because too many people are influenced by things that look good and that are slick and appealing and sexy, and they may be practicing something that's not the most healthy to get to the way they want to look."

Eating Disorders Receive International Attention

Eating disorders, and the malnutrition that results, can adversely affect nearly every organ system in the body, increasing the importance of early diagnosis and treatment. Eating disorders can be fatal.

The study findings come at a time when the issue of eating disorders is becoming an international debate.

A string of women in South America have recently died of eating disorders, including a 23-year-old teacher who carried only 77 pounds on her 5-foot-2-inch frame when she died, according to the Associated Press.

Two models have also died, including 21-year-old Ana Carolina Reston, of Sao Paolo, Brazil, who died at 5 feet 8 inches tall and 88 pounds. She survived on a diet of apples and tomatoes.

And, in August, 22-year-old Luisel Ramos had a fatal heart attack during a fashion show in Uruguay. She reportedly had been subsisting on lettuce and soft drinks.

Long-Term Effects Studied

According to the authors of this study, previous research had looked at the effect of short-term exposure to media, but little attention had been paid to long-term exposure.

One previous study had found that adolescent girls who were randomly assigned to receive a fashion magazine subscription had increased dieting, bulimic symptoms, and body dissatisfaction, although the effect was most pronounced in girls with less social support or who were already dissatisfied with their bodies.

For this study, the researchers looked at eating, activity levels, weight, and other variables in 2,516 middle- and high-school students.

At the beginning of the study (1999), participants filled out surveys and had their height and weight measured. They were surveyed again five years later, in 2004.

The odds of engaging in unhealthy weight-control behaviors such as fasting, skipping meals, and smoking more cigarettes was double for adolescent girls who were the most frequent readers of magazine articles about dieting and weight loss, compared with those who did not read such periodicals.

The odds of engaging in extreme behaviors such as vomiting or taking laxatives were three times higher in the group that read the most, compared with those who did not read such magazines.

No such association was found for boys.

The authors suggest ways to reduce girls' exposure to these media messages or help them read magazines more critically.

For instance, parents could limit daughters' access to magazines that promote dieting and being excessively thin; in fact, mothers might stop buying the magazines themselves.

"They're [the study authors] saying it's the job of the parents, particularly the moms, of not having some of this literature around the house," Kraus says.

Physicians could also remove such magazines from their waiting rooms, cutting off another avenue of exposure.

Always consult your child's physician for more information.