Diet Pills Amongst Women

Posted by Lori Henry Dec 4, 2006

Girls as young as 7 years old are taking these, sometimes dangerous, pills.

“We’re seeing issues with body image and perception in elementary school,” says Paula Triana, the leader of the Nutrition Services Team at the Palm Beach County School District.

“Teens do have a concern over body weight and image. That age is very hard with peer pressure. We try to cycle them away from this dieting which includes diet pills because they are very risky.”

A study done by the University of Minnesota, under the title “Project EAT” (Eating Among Teenagers), studied 2,500 female teenagers over 5 years. The use of pills in high schools has almost doubled from 7.5% to 14.2%. By the time young women reach the age of 20, 20% of them will have used diet pills.

“These numbers are startling, and they tell us we need to do a better job of helping our daughters feel better about themselves and avoid unhealthy weight control behaviours,” states researcher Dianne Neumark-Sztainer simply.

Diet pills are a gateway into eating disorders and disordered eating, fostering the mindset that you can take a pill to “cure” what you don’t like about yourself.