New Study: Dieting Linked To Smoking In Teenage Girls

image from ABC News

New Study: Dieting Linked To Smoking In Teenage Girls — by Catherine Morgan (cross-posted at BlogHer)

 

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Teenage girls who start dieting are nearly two times more likely to also take up smoking regularly, compared with teenage girls who are not dieting.

Not surprising at all…According to this research study, teenage girls who are on diets are twice as likely to begin smoking than their non-smoking counterparts. The study is published in the American Journal of Health Promotion.

This is just another grim example of how badly teenage girls want to be thin; so much so, that they are willing to risk dying of lung cancer or heart disease, rather than to be fat. What does that say about our society? Between eating disorders, lung cancer, heart disease, and other related illnesses…Could a poor body image become the leading cause of death among women? Could it already be???

Britney Spears Performance Spurs Body Image Debate: What is Fat? Who Says?

Britney Spears Performance Spurs Body Image Debate: What is Fat? Who Says? — by Catherine Morgan

I had the unfortunate opportunity of watching the MTV Music Video Awards this past Sunday. Personally, I think the entire show was horribly produced, and it was almost painful to watch. The same is true with the Britney Spears “train wreck” on the same show. Her performance, was just about the worst “so-called” entertainment I have ever seen.

There was basically nothing good you could say about the Britney performance. However, I was surprised to read the next day, that so much focus was being put on her weight. Now, the outfit she wore was hideous, but there is no way you can say she is “fat”. If Britney Spears is considered “fat”, then I must be considered “morbidly obese” and in need of a stomach stapling. There were plenty of reasons to criticize Britney Spears that night, but her weight wasn’t one of them.

But, this post isn’t about Britney Spears…It’s about the continuing, and seemingly never ending, Body Image Debate. When are we going to learn to love our bodies for all of our shapes and sizes? Why does there have to be some cookie cutter image that every women needs to be upheld to?

This is a war, a war on women, and a war on young girls. It’s a war we can not afford to lose.