Diet Pill Double Up
The University of Minnesota reports that diet pill use among teenage girls has doubled over the last 5 years.
What is fueling this obsession with pills?
Here is a brief rundown of a study of 2,500 females over a 5 year period:
- Use of diet pills among high school girls nearly doubled from 7.5% to 14.2%.
- By the ages of 19 and 20 - 20% of females had used diet pills.
- By teenage years physical activity is only 3.93 hours per week (compared with males whose activity level is 6.11 hours per week).
- 21.9% of teenage females used diet pills, laxatives, vomiting or skipping meals as a weight control behavior (compare this with another large study of college-aged women).
- Is it proof that diet supplement industry's marketing efforts are having the desired effect?
- Is it the constant advertising and publicity surrounding childhood obesity?
- Is it due to the considerable publicity from pharmaceutical companies offering obesity solutions (that leads our teens to have a pill-popping mentality)?
- Is it the glamorous association with celebrity figures (who frequently endorse pills)?
- Is it because of the constant tabloid reporting of teen role models and their weight obsessions?
I suspect that all of these issues have an impact - the last one most of all.
Sadly the research also shows that these kind of weight control behaviors are actually linked to increased risk of being overweight.
In other words... they don't work.
More like this in Diet Pills and Teens and Kids
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I'm with you Jim, totally astonished by the figures on diet pills. I was doing some research a while back and found that the term 'natural diet pill' is searched for TWICE as often as the term 'natural diet'. Very worrying.
My doctor here in the UK opened up a 'diet clinic' and folks were queueing around the block to pay 30 pounds a pop for 5 mins of the docs time and a prescription! Criminal. That was many years ago. The price is more likely 50 pounds now although I suspect many now just get the non-presciption varieties.
ReplyI agree, it seems pharmaceutical companies (at least indirectly) contribute to this trend.
ReplyKeep in minds parents are often paying for these pills and encouraging kids to take them. A short while after buying me my first grown-up jeans, which were an appallingly large size 4, my size 0 mother got herself a diet pill prescription in her name, and she'd give them to me. I took them for over a year. So while parents might not necessarily be doing that, I'm sure they are putting pressure on these girls to lose weight. Remember the "would rather have an anorexic child than an obese child" answer?
ReplyI have to say that this blog post is pretty scary. I would like to pose the question - What can be done to combat this trend? I hope it is a question that someone out there has a answer to because right now I don't.
ReplyReading the press release closely and critically (admittedly, not something most people do), I notice:
-- "Diet pill" is not defined. Are they talking about FDA-approved diet pills, those plus off-label-use-pills, or do they include those silly herbal things you buy at the supermarket? Big difference.
-- 21.9 percent do [horrifying list of extreme diet stuff] OR skip meals. Uh, so 21 percent have skipped the occasional meal, and 0.9 percent have done the rest?
And of course, without reading the survey questions themselves and how they are slanted, you can't really judge the survey. I expect it's a load of B.S.
ReplyJan's email is so sad.
Replyiportion, it is sad. If you look at the post Jim made about the diet pill candies, I can't remember what they were called? They were like "chocolates" that contained diet pills. A ton of people who were teens in the 70s talked about having taken them with their parents. So diet pills are the new family bonding experience, and my story is not an isolated case, unfortunately.
ReplyThose candies were called "Ayds". My friend used to take them. I remember her keeping a stash in her dresser drawer.
As for Steven's interpretation of the data... I agree with you, AND I agree with the results. I can see how data can be manipulated, but I also see a horrifying trend in this country, not just in the diet industry, but across the board. The pharmeceutical industry, in cahoots with the medical industry tells us over and over that the answer lies in a pill. High cholesterol? take a pill. High blood pressure? take a pill? Can't sleep? Depressed? Hyperactive? take a pill. Why, then, should we be surprised to find out that teens are doing the exact same thing as their parents - seeking the answers in a bottle? After all, popping a pill is much easier than looking inside, living healthfully, taking it easy when you need to, and accepting our bodies in all their sizes and beauty.
ReplyI remember those diet chocolates, my mother used to take them.
What alarms me too, are that people who only need to lose 5-10 pounds are getting these drugs like phentermine to take the weight off. I thought they were only meant for people who are seriously overweight...
ReplySusan, I find it appalling too. I think it is exactly the people who do not need to lose weight that turn to drugs more often, and with stuff like Xenical OTC, it makes it even more acceptable to do so.
ReplyI too jumped on the "drug" bandwagon taking xenadrine with ephedra when it first came out. I lost over 25lbs, but I always felt like I could run a football field in 10 seconds or less. Doing it naturally now.
Replyi want some!!!
ReplyA lot of people train their kids to be over eaters as children they are made to finish a meal when they say that their not hungry . When my twelve year old was small I was worried that she didn't eat enough I took her to our family doctor he ran test all the test were normal he asked me what she had for breakfast I told him and also told him that she didn't eat it all he replied she apparently eats until she is full ! I had been forcing food on her therefore causing her to over eat. He said when she gets hungry he will eat!!
ReplyI blame 'skinny jeans'!
ReplyGrandma said I was fat or overweight all the time I myself take an alarmingly strong stand on my weight, but I tell my teen she is to tiny she needs to gain some weight. Ever notice they seem to push to lose but there do not seem to be people out there tring to help those that need to gain
ReplyWhat amazes me is that every site I have been to, to research diet pills, says they are bad, but at least half a dozen advertisements for them on the same page. This one included.
ReplyJim,
Bravo for taking a stand! Thank you for practising what we are trying to preach. :o)
ReplyI am doing a survey on the dangers of diet pills among students of the University of Mauritius. this information was of great help to me.
Replyyoungters in Mauritius also are very much affected by the side effects of diet pills.