Don’t know how to handle your overweight teenager? A new study from the University of Minnesota says pushing diets on them or teasing them about their weight can make matters worse. Instead researchers recommend having frequent healthy family meals, a positive environment at mealtime, promoting physical activity, and building self-esteem.
The study looked at more than 2,500 adolescents over five years. It found 44-percent of girls and 20-percent of boys were either overweight, binge-eaters, or they had used drastic measures to control their weight such as purging, abusing laxatives, diet pills, or diuretics.
Results also show girls who said they were teased about their weight were about twice as likely to be overweight five years later and about one-and-a-half times more likely to binge eat and use extreme measures to keep their weight under control.
The study will be published in the November issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
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