(CNN) — “I have a few places for those who want to lose 20 kilos on holiday! No diet, exercise or cravings!
Ads for diet and exercise programs like this one began appearing on my social media feeds in early October 2022, often accompanied by photos of women pushing shopping carts full of Halloween candy meant to represent the weight they no longer carried with them.
Whether it’s intermittent fasting or “cheat” days, diet culture is spreading wildly and growing rapidly, especially among young women and girls, a demographic that may be at risk of social pressure and misinformation.
It’s bad enough that diet culture all over social media targets adult women, but such messages are also seeping into tweens and teens. (And let’s be honest, most of these are aimed squarely at teens, too.) It couldn’t have come at a worse time: There’s been a noticeable increase in eating disorders, especially among teenage girls, since the start of the pandemic.
“My mom is obsessed with (seeing) her Facebook friends lose tons of weight without dieting. Is it real?” The question came from a teenage girl who later revealed that she was considering hiring a health coach to help her eat ‘healthier’ after watching her mother overhaul her diet. The coaching to which he has unfortunately fallen victim is part of a multi-level marketing brand that promotes rapid weight loss through calorie restriction and purchasing expensive food alternatives.
Is it real? Yes. Is it healthy? It’s very unlikely, especially for a growing teenager.
Later that week, a different young customer asked about the clean eating movement she was following on Pinterest. She had read that a strict clean vegan diet was better for both herself and the environment, and she assumed that was true because the pinned article had directed her to a health coaching blog. It looked legitimate. But a deeper dive into the blogger’s credentials showed that the clean eating practices they shared were not actually developed by a nutritionist.
And another teenager, a week after taking part in the “What I Eat in a Day” challenge, a video trend on TikTok, Instagram and other social media platforms in which users document the foods they consume over a period of time, tells me she’s made up her mind. Temporarily muting social media accounts. From where? Because the time he spent restricting eating while pretending to be full left him exhausted and unhappy. She found this trend on TikTok and thought it might help her create healthier eating habits, but instead focused on her calorie intake. Still, while he spent a week promoting this challenge, he didn’t want his friends to see that the challenge was actually making him feel bad.
During any given week, I answer a multitude of questions from tweens and teens about the diet culture they encounter online, around the world, and sometimes even in their own homes. But as we head into the winter holiday season, the pressure is on for shame-based diet culture, often wrapped in toxic positivity to appear encouraging.
D., an adolescent medicine specialist and associate professor of pediatrics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. “As we get closer to the holidays, diet culture is definitely in the air and on social media as much as the lights and music,” Hina Talib said. In the Bronx, New York. “It’s so pervasive that even though it’s not aimed at teenagers, they absorb it by scrolling through it or listening to parents talk about it.”
Social media isn’t the only place where teens encounter harmful messages about body image and weight loss. Young people are inundated with so-called ‘healthy eating’ content on television and popular culture, at school, while engaging in extracurricular or social activities, at home, in public spaces such as shopping malls or markets, and even in restaurants.
Instead of learning how to eat to nourish their bodies and brains, today’s youth are receiving the message that “eating clean” leads to a better body and therefore a better body, to give just one example of a potentially problematic eating trend. happiness. Diets that cut out all carbohydrates, dairy, gluten, and meat-based proteins are popular among teens. But this mindset can trigger food anxiety, obsessive checking of food labels, and dangerous calorie restriction.
An obsessive focus on losing weight, toning muscles, and improving overall appearance actually goes against what teens need to grow at a healthy pace.
“Teens and tweens are growing into adult bodies, and that growth requires weight gain,” said Los Angeles-based parent coach Oona Hanson. “Weight gain during adolescence is not only normal but also necessary for health.”
The good news in all of this is that parents can take an active role in helping teens create a more emotionally healthy narrative about their eating habits. “Parents often feel helpless in the face of TikTokers, peer pressure or the broader diet culture, but it’s important to remember: parents are influencers, too,” Hanson said. What we say and do for our young people matters.
Model a healthy relationship with food
Take a few minutes to reflect on your own eating habits. Teens tend to imitate what they see, even if they don’t talk about it.
Parents and caregivers can model a healthy relationship with food by enjoying a wide variety of foods and trying new recipes for family meals. During the holiday season, when many celebrations may include gathering around the table, take the opportunity to model common connections. “Holidays are a great time to remember that foods nourish us in ways that would never appear on a nutrition label,” Hanson said.
Practice confronting unhealthy body talk
The holiday season is full of opportunities to gather with friends and loved ones to celebrate and make memories, but these moments can create anxiety when nutrition shame occurs.
When extended families gather for holiday celebrations, it’s common for people to comment on how others look or have changed since the last meeting. While this is usually done with good intentions, it can be awkward or upsetting for tweens and teens.
“It is normal for young people going through puberty or experiencing body changes to be self-conscious or self-critical. “It’s not a nice part of conversations for someone to say ‘you’ve improved,'” Talib warned.
Talib recommends that feedback and topic changes be made in advance. Role-play responses such as “We don’t talk about bodies” or “We prefer to focus on everything we accomplished this year.” And be sure to check in and make room for any feelings of hurt and anger your tween or teenager may share due to such comments at an appropriate time.
Improve digital literacy skills
Open and honest communication is always the gold standard in helping tweens and teens work on the messaging and behaviors they have internalized. When families talk about what they see and hear online, on podcasts, on TV, and in print media, they normalize the critical thinking process, and it can create a truly wonderful shared bond between parents and teens.
“Teaching media literacy skills is a helpful way to frame the conversation,” says Talib. “Talk about this openly.”
She recommends asking the following questions when discussing people’s messages about diet culture:
● Who are they?
● What do you think the angles are?
● What do you think their message is?
● Are they a medical professional or are they trying to sell you something?
● Are they promoting a fitness program or supplement they are marketing?
Talking about it with tweens and teens at any time throughout the season brings a taboo subject to the forefront and makes it easier for your kids to share their inner thoughts with you.
CNN Cable
™ and © 2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
This updated story was first published in November 2022.