Health – Creating healthy body attitudes

Growing up in the 80s and 90s, many of us faced the pressures of popular diets like Atkins, South Beach and Jenny Craig. We were also influenced by supermodels like Kate Moss, who famously claimed that “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels”. This era also introduced the troubling trend of heroin chic – characterised by pale skin, dark circles underneath the eyes, emaciated features, androgyny and stringy hair – leaving a generation to grow up hating their own bodies.

Unfortunately, our children face an even harsher reality. With the rise of social media and its constant comparisons, the widespread use of filters, and the prevalence of airbrushed images, children are confronted with the even more daunting challenge of embracing their bodies against a toxic narrative that tells them daily they are not good enough. In order to raise children who like or even dare to love themselves just as they are, we must actively foster body-positive practices, change the narrative and teach them to challenge the world around them.

A New Zealand study in 2012, examining the health and wellbeing of secondary school students, found that three out of four young women (75%) were unhappy with their weight. Additionally, for young men, 10% were unhappy with their weight, and 42% were worried about gaining weight and had attempted to lose weight in the last month. Teenage girls in a recent study stated that they were more afraid of being fat than they were of nuclear war, cancer or losing both of their parents. Personally, I have witnessed children as young as five with disordered eating and low body confidence in clinical settings.

What can we do to help change these statistics for our own kids?

• Children learn more from our role modelling than what we say to them. Limit negative self-talk, especially in front of your kids. Try not to comment on people’s appearances, as congratulating someone on weight loss reinforces the idea that bigger bodies are bad and thin bodies are better.

• Teach kids to be critical of the images they are exposed to. Encourage discussions about media messages and challenge unrealistic beauty standards together.

• Fat isn’t bad, and it isn’t a bad word! We can’t determine anything about someone’s eating habits, exercise routines, or overall health based on their body size.

• Bodies come in all different shapes, sizes and colours. Nobody is better or worse based on ethnicity, gender, ability, or any other difference. We are all unique and bring value in our own way.

• Pay attention to what your child is exposed to on social media, books, TV and movies. Choose media that challenges and counteracts the toxic narrative rather than reinforcing it.

• Diets don’t work in the long term. They promote the idea that certain body sizes or shapes are more desirable, reinforcing societal beauty standards and creating pressure to conform. Focus on long-term positive health behaviours that let all foods have a place in our diets.