Adolescent eating problems

Charlyn Fargo, Contributor

Do you have adolescents with an eating disorder? Get them help. It's not likely to go away, according to a study conducted by researchers at the University of Minnesota.

The study found that adolescents who diet and develop disordered eating behaviours (unhealthy and extreme weight-control behaviours and binge eating) carry these unhealthy practices into young adulthood and beyond. The study was published in the July 2011 issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

"The findings from the current study argue for early and ongoing efforts aimed at the prevention, early identification, and treatment of disordered eating behaviours in young people," said lead investigator, Dianne Neumark-Sztainer, RD, and professor of the division of Epidemiology & Community Health, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota.

DIETING IMPORTANT

"Given the growing concern about obesity, it is important to let young people know that dieting and disordered eating behaviours can be counterproductive to weight management. Young people concerned about their weight should be provided with support for healthful eating and physical activity behaviours that can be implemented on a long-term basis, and it should be steered away from the use of unhealthy weight control practices."

Using data from Project EAT-III (Eating and Activity in Teens) - a 10-year longitudinal study aimed at examining eating, activity and weight-related variables among young people - researchers examined the records for 1,030 young men and 1,257 young women. One-third of participants were in early adolescence at the beginning of the study and were in early young adulthood at the 10-year follow-up. Two-thirds of participants were in middle adolescence at the beginning and were in middle young adulthood after 10 years.

Subjects were asked about dieting, extreme weight-control behaviours, such as fasting, using food substitutes, skipping meals and binge eating with loss of control. Additional socio-economic, gender, age and race/ethnicity data were also collected.

About half of the females reported dieting in the past year compared to about a quarter of the males. The prevalence of dieting remained fairly constant from adolescence through young adulthood for females in both age groups. Among males, the prevalence of dieting stayed constant over time in the younger ages, but significantly increased in older males as they progressed from middle adolescence to middle young adulthood.

For extreme weight-control behaviours, significant increases from adolescence to young adulthood were found in females and older males. The tracking of these potentially harmful behaviours suggests that their use is not just 'a phase' that adolescents go through, but instead indicates that early use of dieting and disordered eating behaviours may set the stage for continued use of these behaviours later on.

- Journal of the American Dietetic Association

Instant tea vs brewed tea

Q Is instant iced tea as healthful as brewed tea? What about tea that comes ready-made in bottles?

A If you're looking for the antioxidant phytochemical compounds that have been identified in tea, brewed tea will clearly deliver more than either instant or bottled tea. United States Department of Agriculture analysis shows that EGCG (epigallocatechin gallate, a powerful oxidant) in bottled green tea is a small percentage of that contained in brewed green tea, and its antioxidant power is less than half of the brewed-tea version. Likewise, instant and bottled black tea contain less than 30 per cent of the thearubigin content and antioxidant power of brewed black tea.

- American Institute for Cancer Research

Charlyn Fargo is a registered dietitian from Creators Syndicate. www.creators.com.