 |
||||
Youth Pay Price of Poor Body Image Negative thoughts most often lead to eating disorders, not improved diet and exercise. 
When the young don’t like what they see in the mirror today, they face a higher risk of bad behaviors as teens to fix their poor body image, says a University of Minnesota School of Public Health study of more than 2,000 adolescents. Instead of engaging in positive behaviors, such as healthy eating, teen girls with negative self-images were more likely to binge eat, eat fewer fruits and vegetables, take diet pills, be “couch potatoes” and cause vomiting five years later, according to Dianne Neumark-Sztainer, Ph.D., M.P.H., R.D. Boys with poor body images tended to engage in unhealthy habits and start smoking later in life. “With this in mind, interventions ... should strive to boost self-confidence so they will want to take care of themselves right away,” says Neumark-Sztainer, lead study author. |
||||
|
||||
