Avalon Hills Blog

Unfortunately teenage dieting is not just a phase that we can hope they will eventually grow out of. According to a study, unhealthy eating practices arising from eating disorders that are developed during the teenage years are more likely to persist into early adulthood and even further.

Project Eating and Activity in Teens and Young Adults (or Project EAT) is a 10-year study conducted by the University of Minnesota. Project EAT is the first study that kept track of eating and weight control behaviors, spanning from the teenage years to young adulthood. The purpose of the study is to look into eating and activity levels, as well as weight levels of teenagers. The study encompassed over 2,000 participants with 1,257 females and 1,030 males, with a third of the participants having a mean age of 12.8 years at the onset.

Key Findings

These participants were between 12 to 16 years old at the time the study began. And findings showed that unhealthy eating and weight control habits that these adolescents developed during their teens tend to persist into adulthood. These results underscore the importance of being able to prevent, identify and treat eating disorders during the teenage years.

• Approximately half of the female participants and one-fourth of the male participants stated that they were dieting within the past year at the start of the survey.
• Dieting habits in females remained somewhat constant from the teenage years to adulthood.
• Among females, unhealthy weight control habits (such as skipping of meals and the use of diet pills) also stayed steady into these participants’ young adulthood with a slight decrease during the middle adolescence. However, the prevalence of unhealthy dieting practices is still quite high (decreasing to 54.4% from 60.7%).
• As for males, dieting habits remained constant throughout the period with a considerable rise in dieting beginning from their mid-teens to middle young adulthood. Showing that males are more likely to start dieting when they reach their early to mid-20s.
• The prevalence of unhealthy dieting practices climbed from 2.1% to 7.3%, with binge eating rising from 3% to 5.9%.

Importance of Early Action

The lead author of the research, Dianne Neumark-Sztainer, emphasized the role of parents and responsible adults to diminish the occurrence of bad eating and dieting. Parents should be on the lookout for early warning signs and should also encourage their children to have a healthy body image. The study also shows the importance of getting help early for things such as anorexia treatment or bulimia treatment.

Some warning signs that often show that a teen may need eating disorder treatment include an excessive preoccupation with one’s weight and appearance, obsession about counting calories, going to the toilet after meals, avoidance of eating or lying about how much he or she has eaten and over-exercising.

Although we are aware of the fight against obesity in the United States we strongly encourage the right habits and methods of doing so should be promoted. Teens should be given the information about how unhealthy weight control methods and dieting actually have a negative effect.

Help for Eating Disorders

Concerned parents can get help for eating disorders through Avalon Hills. Avalon Hills eating disorder treatment center is committed to providing holistic treatment to help teens and adults triumph over eating disorders.

Avalon Hills aims to treat anorexia, bulimia and other eating disorders by changing the way they see themselves, their bodies and their surroundings. This is done by helping them towards positive change through new information, new experiences and new insights. By developing a new mindset towards positive change, one is more resistant towards the negative influences that can sometimes cause the eating disorders.

Avalon Hills’ treatment program uses a combination of psychotherapy (both group and individual), animal assisted therapy, outdoor challenges, activities focused on self-expression, tackling body and food fears and more.

More and more men are talking about eating disorders and their struggle with them. Many of these men are also seeking eating disorder treatment for themselves. In the past, eating disorders have been previously and commonly attributed to affecting women. Although the numbers of males with eating disorders are lower than that of the females’, it is still noteworthy that the increasing figures for men are on the rise.

In Britain, somewhere around 1.6 million people are said to be suffering from an eating disorder, one out of every five of such people are male. This is according to Beat, a British organization dedicated towards helping those with eating disorders.  In addition, hospitals in the country have also reported a rise in the number of men being admitted to the hospital for eating disorders within the past 10 years.

We recognize that these are just figures and they may be very under or even over reported. What it does tell us though is that men talking about eating disorders are not as taboo as it once was. Previously, men rarely even talked about the existence of the problem, much less admit to the problem and go for treatment for the eating disorder. As a result, few of those with eating disorders are properly diagnosed and even treated.

One important step towards properly recognizing the existence of the eating disorder among men is to train and equip doctors to also recognize the symptoms of eating disorders in men.

Avalon Hills and Treatment

Avalon Hills is an eating disorder treatment center that concentrates on providing a residential treatment to help those with eating disorders. Although, we do not treat men as a part of our program, we recognize the importance of men getting appropriate eating disorder treatment also. We would be happy to provide resources and referrals for those seeking treatment.

No matter what age your child is, it’s important to start teaching them good eating habits.  With these habits your children will be healthier and have a positive relationship with food.  If a child doesn’t have strong healthy habits they may eventually need eating disorder help.  Of course, not all of these children will, but it’s more likely for a child or teen to seek anorexia treatment or bulimia disorder help, if they don’t have healthy eating habits.

The best time to start teaching your children about good eating habits is when they’re young.  However, it can be started at any age.  It’s just important that parents start the process before their children have developed several negative eating habits.  It’s not impossible to start at that point; it’s just much harder to get them to embrace the habits.  Teaching new habits is easier than transforming habits.

One of the best ways to teach your child, especially when they’re young, is to be a good role model.  The “do as I say, not as I do” approach is far from being effective.  When children are young they have a strong tendency to imitate.  If a parent tells a child to eat their vegetables while the parent eats greasy chips, the child is less likely to follow the instructions.

A parent should eat the healthy foods they want their children to eat, such as vegetables, fruits, fish, and other helthy foods.  Another important element of being a good role model is eating balanced meals.  A parent should eat balanced meals as often as possible instead of eating only the pieces of a balanced meal throughout the day.

There are several practices that can help a child of any age learn about healthy eating habits.  One is to have regular family meals.  This means the family sits down together and eats a healthy meal close to the same time every day.  Keeping up with a scheduled time to eat dinner can help the children understand that meals should be eaten regularly.  Having the entire family together also enhances appetite and comforts children.

It’s important that the family meals are home made.  Making a meal every night can be time consuming, but it’s better for everyone in your family.  Overall, home cooked meals are healthier.  Many restaurant or fast food meals have more salt and fat in them.  Your child will also get into the habit of making food instead of buying fast food.

Another option for parents is to involve their children in food-related activities.  These activities may include packing school lunches, making dinner, or grocery shopping.  All of these activities give parents the chance to talk to their children about eating healthy.  They can learn about the importance of certain foods in a daily diet.  While helping out in the kitchen, they can also learn about healthy cooking habits.

These ways of teaching children about healthy eating habits all require the parents’ presence.  However, parents aren’t able to be with their children every second of the day.  A great way to teach your children about healthy eating while you’re not home is to have healthy snacks around.  Stocking your pantry with healthy drinks and food will subtly teach your children.  They will get used to grabbing a healthy snack when they’re hungry.  As they get older they’re more likely to choose healthy snacks because that’s what they’re used to eating.

These are just a few ways to teach children about healthy eating.  It’s very important to teach your children healthy eating habits because it can help avoid the development of an eating disorder.  It’s better to avoid an eating disorder than to treat one once it’s firmly developed. However if it’s come to your attention that your child or teen has developed an eating disorder, there is help. Avalon Hills has the best eating disorder treatment for those that suffer from eating disorders and want to help.