More teenage girls than ever before are turning to diet pills to lose weight, according to a recent study by the University of Minnesota’s Project EAT (Eating Among Teens). The study, published in the journal Preventive Medicine, found that the use of diet pills almost doubled among a group of 2,500 female adolescents who were tracked for five years. Overall rates of pill use rose from 7.5 percent to 14 percent, with 20 percent of girls ages 19 to 20 reporting the use of diet pills to lose weight.
The study also found that two-thirds of teenage girls use “unhealthy weight control behaviors,” and more than a fifth use “very unhealthy weight control behaviors.” Such behaviors can include the use of diet pills, laxatives, vomiting, or skipping meals. Teens who use unhealthy weight control behaviors are at three times the risk of being overweight, unlike teens who feel good about their bodies and eat better.
The teens studied were tracked in two groups: half were monitored from seventh grade onward, while the rest entered the study in 11th and 12th grades. Both segments increased their use of diet pills over time.
Study author and University of Minnesota Professor of Epidemiology Dianne Neumark-Sztainer says she was surprised by the results. “It’s very unusual to see an increase like that in such a short period of time,” she says.
Drawing on information gathered through Project EAT, Neumark-Sztainer wrote the book I’m, Like, SO Fat!, in which she outlines ways parents can help teens achieve a positive body image. Modeling healthy behaviors, providing an environment that makes it easy for girls to make healthy choices, focusing more on behaviors and less on weight, and providing a supportive environment with lots of talking and even more listening are all things that can be done at home to improve a teen’s self-perception.
“I think parents need to do more and talk less. There tends to be lot of talk in homes and schools about weight and about dieting. And this talk does not seem to be effective, it seems to be harmful,” says Neumark-Sztainer. “What really can be helpful is less talking about dieting and more opportunities for [healthful] family meals and physical activity.”
After the surprising results of Neumark-Sztainer’s diet pill research, she hopes to receive more funding to expand the study from the original five-year plan to a 10-year plan in which she can follow the subjects longer and collect more data about their habits. She is also working with elementary and high school students to improve their body images so diet pill use becomes less prevalent.
“The aim is to help children feel good enough about bodies so they’ll want to nurture them through healthy eating and physical activity, not pills.”
