Children and Teens Afraid to Eat or Am I Thin Enough yet

Children and Teens Afraid to Eat: Helping Youth in Today's Weight-Obsessed World

Author: Frances M Berg

Documenting the overwhelming physical and mental effects of the pressure to be thin, this book examines the way weight obsession consumes America's youth. It describes four major weight and eating problems-eating disorders, dysfunctional eating, size prejudice, and overweight-and shows healthy ways to change. A valuable resource for parents, teachers, and health professionals, it explains new ways to nurture children and prevent weight problems.

Doody Review Services

Reviewer: Ryna Levy-Milne, PhD, RDN (University of British Columbia)
Description: This third edition provides a comprehensive overview of six major eating and weight problems affecting youth and guidance on how to resolve these issues.
Purpose: The purpose is to provide facts and research on the plight of today's youth regarding weight issues and practical guidelines on how to make changes in the home and community to resolve these issues.
Audience: The intended audience includes healthcare practitioners, parents, and teachers. The author is a credible expert in the area of disordered eating and weight issues.
Features: The author believes in the "health at any size" paradigm, "a health-centered approach that focuses on health and well-being, not weight." She recommends a healthful "vitality" lifestyle approach that focuses on healthy eating, increased movement, and improving self-esteem. This book is well written and easy to read and is presented in a user-friendly format.
Assessment: Due to the increased prevalence of eating disorders and obesity in our youth, this book is invaluable to all care providers. It not only provides insight into the eating and weight issues that North American youths face but also provides a user-friendly approach in the form of self-help tools, check lists, etc. that is often lacking in the educational system and resources available.

KLIATT

This is a comprehensive study of dysfunctional eating behavior, an epidemic that is affecting Americans of all ages, without discrimination. Most sufferers have been girls, but today more and more boys feel a need to have a specific body type. The book is not limited to discussions about anorexia and bulimia. There are as well anecdotes about adolescents' (non-) acceptance of themselves no matter what size they are. What can parents and teachers do to encourage self-acceptance in these children? As early as Chapter 1: Growing Up Afraid to Eat, Berg begins her suggestions, and includes a wonderful "Health at any Size" chart that diagrams how school, family, peers, media, and healthcare providers contribute to healthy children of all sizes living actively, eating well, and feeling good about themselves and others. On the preceding page, there is a truly funny paragraph that talks about the 1990s Chicago Bulls and how they all registered as having body masses that would label them "obese." Obviously the Body Mass Index, BMI, is being used improperly. The appendix includes a chart of BMI, notes for each chapter, and an extensive bibliography. The style is eminently readable, not only for parents and health-care professionals, but also for teachers and mature high school students. (402 South 14th St., Hettinger, ND 58639). KLIATT Codes: SA—Recommended for senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 2001, Healthy Weight Network, 177p, notes, bibliog, index, 23cm, $19.95. Ages 16 to adult. Reviewer: Judith H. Silverman; Chevy Chase, MD, March 2001 (Vol. 35 No. 2)

Rating

4 Stars! from Doody

Book review: Inquisitive Cook or Smoky Mountain Magic

Am I Thin Enough yet?: The Cult of Thinness and the Commercialization of Identity

Author: Sharlene Hesse Biber

Whether they are rich or poor, tall or short, liberal or conservative, most young American women have one thing in common--they want to be thin. And they are willing to go to extraordinary lengths to get that way, even to the point of starving themselves. Why are America's women so preoccupied with weight? What has caused record numbers of young women--even before they reach their teenage years--to suffer from anorexia and bulimia? In Am I Thin Enough Yet?, Sharlene Hesse-Biber answers these questions and more, as she goes beyond traditional psychological explanations of eating disorders to level a powerful indictment against the social, political, and economic pressures women face in a weight-obsessed society.
Packed with first-hand, intimate portraits of young women from a wide variety of backgrounds, and drawing on historical accounts and current material culled from both popular and scholarly sources, Am I Thin Enough Yet? offers a provocative new way of understanding why women feel the way they do about their minds and bodies. Specifically, Hesse-Biber highlights the various ways in which American families, schools, popular culture, and the health and fitness industry all undermine young women's self-confidence as they inculcate the notions that thinness is beauty and that a woman's body is more important than her mind. The author builds her case in part by letting her subjects tell their own story, revealing in their own words how current standards of femininity lead many women to engage in eating habits that are not only self-destructive, but often akin to the obsessions and ritualistic behaviors found among members of cults. For instance, we meet Delia, a bulimiccollege senior who makes the startling admission that "my final affirmation of myself is how many guys look at me when I go into a bar." We even learn of six-year-olds like Lauren, already preoccupied with her weight, who considers herself "a real clod" in ballet class because she is not as thin as her peers. We are introduced to women (and men) from different cultures who themselves have acquired eating disorders in pursuit of the American standard of physical perfection. And we learn of the often tragic consequences of this obsession with thinness, as in the case of Janet, who underwent surgery to reduce her weight only to suffer from chronic illness and pain as a result. The book concludes with Hesse-Biber's prescriptions on how women can overcome their low self-image through therapy, spiritualism, and grass-root efforts to empower themselves against a society obsessed with beauty and thinness.
Am I Thin Enough Yet? brings into sharp focus the multitude of societal and psychological forces that compel American women to pursue the ideal of thinness at any cost. It will remain a benchmark work on the subject for many years to come.