In a five-year study of more than 2,500 teenagers, researchers found that 44 percent of girls and 29 percent of boys were overweight, habitual binge-eaters or had taken unhealthy measures to lose weight -- such as abusing laxatives, using diet pills or vomiting.
In many cases, these problems overlapped. Among overweight girls, 40 percent reported binge-eating, extreme dieting or both, the study authors report in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
"We usually look for these behaviors in very thin girls, but here we see a very high prevalence in overweight girls," lead study author Dr. Dianne Neumark-Sztainer, a professor of public health at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, said in a statement.
What's more, she and her colleagues found, some of the same factors seemed to underlie the risks of becoming overweight, binge-eating or taking extreme measures to shed pounds.
In particular, being teased by a family member appeared to raise the risk of all three problems in girls. Girls who reported such teasing at the start of the study were twice as likely as their peers to be overweight five years later, and they were 41 percent more likely to have tried unhealthy weight-loss tactics.
Among the other risk factors were preoccupation with weight, having a mother who dieted, and frequently reading magazine articles on weight loss.
On the other hand, weight-related problems were less common among girls who said they frequently sat down to meals with their families, and that family meals were a positive, enjoyable experience...
Via Reuters
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