Dieting Literature Review

LITERATURE REVIEW

Neumark-Sztainer and colleagues (1997; 1998) defined dieting as an intentional, often temporary, change in eating to achieve weight loss. Dieting can be done in a healthy way like increasing fruit, vegetable and whole grain intake, moderate reduction in fat intake and increased exercise or it can be achieved through unhealthy methods which include self-induced vomiting (Jones et al, 2001), diet pills, skipping meals and use of laxatives (Neumark-Sztainer et al, 2002). The frequency of unhealthy diet methods in adolescents was highlighted by a number of studies (Patton et al, 1997; Boutelle et al, 2002; Neumark-Sztainer et al, 2002). These included fasting, skipping meals and crash diets in 22%-46%, self-induced emesis in

A number of studies have shown that young children are dieting and are not satisfied with their bodies. Collins (1991) found that 24% of 1st - 3rd-grade girls want to be thinner while Mellin and colleagues (1991) found that 81% of 10-year-olds are afraid of being fat and that 51% of 9-10-year-old girls feel better about themselves if they are on a diet. A review by Zeilinger (2015) highlighted that 1 in 4 children has engaged in some type of dieting behavior be age 7 and that 80% of 10-year-old American girls have been on a diet. According to this review, more than half of girls and approximately one-third of boys aged 6-8 years indicated their ideal bodies are thinner than their current bodies. The Keep It Real campaign (2012) which aims to improve body image issues in young adults, found that 53% of 13-year-old girls have issues with how their bodies look and this increases to 78% which girls turn 17. According NEDA (2009) between 40% and 60% of children aged between 6 and 12 years are worried about their weight and 70% would like to slim

The reason for choosing this topic is because of the side effects or negative consequences that this can have on the health of these children in the future. A study by Field and colleagues involving over 15000, 9 to 14-year-olds, who were followed for a 3-year period, found that dieters gain significantly more weight than the control group. They concluded that self-directed dieting in this age group was not only ineffective but may promote weight gain. Dieting in teenagers has been associated with fivefold to 18 fold increased risk in developing eating disorders such as bulimia and anorexia Nervosa which can cause death, serious illnesses or stunted growth (Patton et al, 1990,1991). There is also a high risk of osteoporosis in dieting girls (Kriepe and Forbes, 1990) and growth deceleration (Lifshitz et al,