BlogHer - Dieting Linked To Smoking In Teen Girls: Could a poor body image become the leading cause of death among women? - Comments

Poor body image is the starting point

alivemagazine — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 12:01:07 -0600

Several research have shown that poor body image can lead to dieting and then to anorexia or bulimia. We all know that those diseases are deadly.

The idealization of a thin body type makes women dieting everyday and having a low self esteem. This also can cause depression and be harmful.

I do not really know about the relationship between dieting and smoking even though I am not surprised that persons who are dieting are more likely to smoke, just because nicotine has been proven to reduce hunger.

There are a tons of statistics on the Internet that are pretty shocking, some of them are:
- The average weight of a model is 23% lower than that of an average woman; 20 years ago, the differential was only 8% (Social Issues Research Centre).
- A 1996 study found that the amount of time an adolescent watches soaps, movies and music videos is associated with their degree of body dissatisfaction and desire to be thin (Tiggemann & Pickering, 1996).
- The body type portrayed in advertising as the ideal is possessed naturally by less than 5% of females (Social Issues Research Centre).
- 75% of teen girls 15-19 agree that society tells girls that attracting boys and acting sexy is one of the most important things girls can do.
www.teenpregnancy.org 2004.

Again it's just a few of them, Dove made a world wide study on body satisfaction that is really interesting.

Céline
Alive Magazine
www.alivemagazine.org

Thanks for your comment.

Catherine Morgan — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 13:10:40 -0500

Thanks for your comment.

I'm in no way minimizing these other causes of death in women. Just pointing out the relationship between poor body image and deadly diseases such as heart disease (which is a leading cause of death in both men and women).

Of course the statistics you have mentioned are devastating, and I apologize if it seemed I was minimizing that in any way with this post.

Contributing Editor Catherine Morgan
also at Women 4 Hope and Informed Voters

...Only if you are talking about some women...

Yvette Perry — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 12:32:45 -0500

Could a poor body image become the leading cause of death among women? Could it already be???

Obviously this question is not meant to include all women. For example, HIV/AIDS is the leading cause of death for 24-34 year old African American women (http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/women/resources/factsheets/women.htm); There are estimates that homicide is a leading cause of death for US pregnant women (http://www.now.org/issues/violence/043003pregnant.html); For all females from infancy through 34, the leading cause of death in a recent CDC report was listed as "unintentional injuries" (http://www.cdc.gov/women/lcod/04all.pdf).

I think it is fine to highlight eating disorders and body image as important issues for women. Yes, there may be a "war on women and girls." But the statistics seem to point the finger to other more primary "enemies" than fashion magazines and the MTV awards show.

Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast

You make a good point.

Catherine Morgan — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 17:27:41 -0500

Good point...I imagine one bad habit could lead to another.

Contributing Editor Catherine Morgan
also at Women 4 Hope and Informed Voters

Not surprising

kperfetto — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 08:53:14 -0500

I wonder if it's also a case of bad habits go hand-in-hand, rather than teenage girls actually thinking taking up smoking is a good diet plan.

Five Dollar Camera & Five Dollar Radio

Dieting Linked To Smoking In Teen Girls: Could a poor body image become the leading cause of death among women?

Catherine Morgan — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 00:35:16 -0500

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Teenage girls who start dieting are nearly two times more likely to also take up smoking regularly, compared with teenage girls who are not dieting.

Not surprising at all...According to this research study, teenage girls who are on diets are twice as likely to begin smoking than their non-smoking counterparts. The study is published in the American Journal of Health Promotion.

This is just another grim example of how badly teenage girls want to be thin; so much so, that they are willing to risk dying of lung cancer or heart disease, rather than to be fat. What does that say about our society? Between eating disorders, lung cancer, heart disease, and other related illnesses...Could a poor body image become the leading cause of death among women? Could it already be???

Dieting and weight loss is a multi-million dollar industry (maybe more with FDA approved "diarrhea" pills...aka Alli) that prey on insecurities and negative self images, of (mostly) women. And thanks to television and magazine covers, more and more women have a false impression of what a healthy weight is, or what "thin" should look like. A great example was the MTV awards, where a bad performance by Britney Spears, was actually overshadowed by controversy over her weight. Honestly, if Britney Spears is considered fat, than I must be morbidly obese.

Like most women, I struggle with my weight as well. When I was younger, losing weight had more to do with wanting to be "thin", now it's mostly due to mounting health issues (such as high blood pressure). As a health and wellness blogger, I like to focus on healthy eating habits as the best method for weight loss, not fad and starvation diets. But before we can begin a healthy eating lifestyle, we need to have a realistic and "healthy" self image...one can not come without the other. So how can we do that in todays society? Well, it's not going to be easy.

A recent BlogHer post by Maria Niles...

For every advance we make in countering the constant drumbeat of messages telling women that, no matter what, our bodies are not good enough and that we should feel shame, hatred and disgust there are many more that reinforce the message.

From Beauty and the Breast...

The forum has published the study in a very readable, appealing magazine called Faking It: The Female Image in Young Women’s Magazines. From an article at ABC News in Australia, here are some of the study's findings...

In young teenage girls, looking at pictures of thin, idealized models is likely to cause lowered satisfaction with their body and a high state of depression. Reading fashion and beauty magazines is associated with wanting to lose weight and initiating diets. A five-year study found that reading dieting advice in magazines was associated with skipping meals, smoking, vomiting and using laxatives in teenage girls.

This is a war, a war on women, and a war on young girls. It's a war we can not afford to lose. So, what will it take for us to win this war? Let me know what you think.

Here is what I think...

WOMEN! Love Yourselves. You are perfect, just the way you are.

Contributing Editor Catherine Morgan
also at Women 4 Hope and CatherineBlogs.com