Unhealthy Dieting Leads to Weight Gain in Teens
10:50 AM
While overweight or obese teens may need to adopt healthier diets and increase physical activity, it's common for young people to look for quicker fixes to lose weight. But the new study, published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, found that unhealthy weight-control strategies caused teens to be heavier 10 years later no matter what their body mass index was to begin with.
Researchers at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health looked at data taken from more than 1,900 middle-school and high-school students who were followed for 10 years. More than 37% of the girls and 10% of the boys dieted persistently. Nearly half of the girls and almost 19% of boys engaged in other unhealthy weight-control practices, including smoking, using laxatives, vomiting, using diet pills, skipping meals or eating food substitutes.
Girls who dieted persistently had higher body mass indexes 10 years later: an increase of 4.6 units on the BMI scale compared with 2.3 units among non-dieters. For boys, a seven-unit increase was seen among persistent dieters compared with 3.5 among non-dieters. The increase in BMI occurred among people who were overweight to begin with as well as those who weren't overweight but dieted or engaged in unhealthy weight-control practices anyway.
"While young boys and girls may think dieting will help them to lose weight, data suggests they may be causing more harm than good in the long run," Dianne Neumark-Sztainer, the lead author of the study, said in a news release. "The focus needs to be on healthful eating and physical activity behaviors that can be sustained over time, rather than unhealthy, weight control practices."
Article "Unhealthy Dieting Leads to Higher Weight in Teens, Study Says" by Sheri Roan with the LA Times. Read more: http://www.latimes.com/health/boostershots/la-heb-teen-dieting-20120106,0,457692.story
Best Teen Diets recommends healthy well balanced eating that includes fruits vegetables, whole grains, protein and low-fat or fat-free dairy. We offer nutrition information for teens, parents and educators that emphasizes the importance of healthy eating for teens.
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