DECEMBER 2012centerspread8 THE PONY EXPRESS 9centerspread

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Dieting and weight loss tops many people’s list of New Year’s resolutions. Many teens have had successful experiences with dieting while others struggle with poor self image induced by weight. Students express their opinions about weight and share their stories about dieiting.

of students have had a success-

ful experience with dieting

of students have no experience

with dieting

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Student StandpointMany students experiment with diets in high school. Gaither students express their opin-ions about weight loss, self image and pres-sures to be thin.

Diet fad spreads quickly among the student population

A common misconception is that teens don’t know how to or care about maintaining a prop-er diet.

According to Livestrong, a foundation that offers diet, nutrition and fitness tips to promote healthier lifestyle choices, up to ninety percent of teenagers diet regularly, and up to fifty per-cent of children have tried a diet at some point.

Unfortunately, diets have been given a bad reputation ever since teen icons such as Demi Lovato and Mary Kate Olsen have suffered from eating disorders.

A lot of teenagers are thinking positively about their eating choices though.

“Eating healthy is good for you because it’s good for your mental and physical health,” said senior Rikke Bukh.

Being healthy is one of the main reasons why teenagers go on diets. Other reasons in-clude being dissatisfied with one’s body and help to improve athletic abilities.

Junior Zach Cronin, a varsity cross country runner, said that he eats healthy in order to achieve his optimal performance while run-ning.

Even sports nutritionists are encouraging teenage athletes to be aware of what they eat.

Jennifer Peters, a dietician working for Healthy Food Guide, said that teenage athletes need more nutrients than others their age.

Nutrients are found in all food groups, but they tend to not be in the foods we enjoy most, such as fats, oils and sweets.

So what are some ways to eat right without giving up favorite foods?

Researchers from Caring for Kids, a web-site designed to provide parents with informa-tion about their child’s health, suggest eating breakfast, to stop eating when full, and not to participate in emotional eating. When people eat while bored, sad, or upset they tend not to think about the quantity or quality of the food Story by Julianne Checanover Sahar Takshi/Pony Express

Rachelle Mourra and Emily Charlow/Pony Express

Teens test out various diets in order to lose weight or become healthier

32 of students have had an unsuc-

cessful experi-ence with di-eting

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%

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that they are eating. In addition, Caring for Kids researchers advise to eat a wide variety of food groups and to choose foods that are high in fiber.

Students, on the other hand, have different advice for teenagers trying to eat healthy.

Junior Nick Brandt suggests eating less and to limit large amount of sugars, while fresh-man Adriana Formby-Fernandez recommends sticking to a proposed diet. Senior Anna Chen encourages others not to skip meals and to eat plenty of fruits and vegetables.

Either way, maintaining a proper diet opens up many opportunities, both physically and emotionally. It promotes self-image and con-fidence, which in turn helps others feel good about themselves.

With plenty of healthy foods to choose from and advice to follow, teenagers are able to maintain well balanced diets.

images of unnaturally skinny girls on sites such as Tumblr and celebrity bashing websites like www.skinnygossip.com.

South Carolina Department of Health estimates that 80 million people in the United States are currently suffering from eating disorders and 50 thousand of of them will die in this generation’s lifetime directly from an eating disorder if trends continue. Florida Department of Health explains that in 2009, 645 people between the ages of 12 and 18 were hospi-talized due to complications with eating disorders.

Although the women are more likely to suffer from eat-ing disorders, as observed by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, males also undergo harmful diets. According to The Council of Size and Weight Discrimination, twelve percent of teenge boys admit to using unproven sup-plements or steroids to look more muscular.

“Everywhere you go you see guys with all these perfect bodies and then you see all the girls always crazy about them, then it makes you think why shouldn’t I have a perfect body and have girls crazy over me?” said sophomore Andrew Ron-deau.

Despite the possible harmful effects of unnecessary diet-ing, carefully planned and suited diets can be healthy accord-ing to Weight-control Information Network. In fact, people under the age of eighteen are recommended by www.teen-agehealthfreak.org to exercise and eat healthy rather than undergo superfluous diets.

“I don’t think body image is that important as long as you’re healthy, that’s what really matters, I care about my image but I care about my health more because it’s what’s going to help me in the long run,” said Bracero.

Teens are advised by nationaleatingdisorders.org to con-sult their physicians before beginning a new eating regiment and to consider their well being when making the decision to go on a diet.

Eating disorders are a common issue among teens, due to both media ideals of perfection and peer pressure among stu-dents.

Poor eating habits are a rising problem amid students. The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry esti-mates that as many as one in ten young women suffer from an eating disorder, including but not limited to bulimia, anorexia and poor nutritional habits.

“I think one of the reasons people gain weight [is] because they get too pressured and stressed out and try too hard and it ends up going the opposite way,” said senior Maria Florencia.

Florencia admitted to giving in to some ideals, yet she does not let it consume her.

Weight-control Information Network advises people of all ages not to diet because they feel compelled to. In fact, they state that unnecessarily cutting food intake or using substanc-es, such as laxatives, to lose weight are not only harmful to the body, but occasionally result in weight gain.

Media and advertising contribute to the largely opinion-ated images of beauty and thinness. Girl Scouts Research In-stitute states that one-third of all girls have a distorted idea about their weight. According to www.weighingthefacts.com, the current media ideal of thinness is achieved by less than five percent of the female population

“Girls, they read magazines and they think that it’s neces-sary to be like a hundred and twenty [pounds] or be really su-per skinny when it’s not; it’s how you see yourself and as long as you’re comfortable with yourself it shouldn’t matter. A lot of girls, they care so much about what other people think that they try to be like other people body wise and sometimes they even starve themselves,” said junior Sedania Bracero.

Eating disorders have actually become a trend. There are thousands of blogs advocating “thinspiration” and displaying Story by Camilla Acosta

Potentially dangerous diets threaten teens’ health

Below are the results of a survey taken by 400 Gaither students, half male and half female. Students shared their experiences and stance on dieting. Statistics and surveys courtesy of Sabrina Olivier, Drake Wikstrom, Julianne Chechanover and Sahar Takshi.

freshman Aubrey Paschal

freshman Morgan Prezzano

sophomore Patrick Maguschack

sophomore Alyssa Wilson

junior Paul Flores

junior Brian Almond

senior Suzette Cluff

senior Todd Reese

Weight lost: 80 lbs

Motivation: The only motivation I had was myself. I knew that I couldn't rely on others to get it done for

me.

Goal: My goal wasn't to just lose the weight. I didn't just want to lose a few pounds, I wanted to lose so

much that I would be nearly unrecognizable upon returning to school for my senior year. I also knew that I didn't just want to lose the weight to look better. I wanted to feel better and I knew that in the long-run this would be healthy for me.

Method: My diet was simple, [I wanted to] burn off much more than I consumed each day. That's how you lose weight, burn more and consume less. I was eating smaller portions, but I was eating more often. I legitimately only ate healthy food because I was afraid that I would undo all my work. I would run twenty to thirty minutes each day, without stopping. It was that easy.

Advice to students: If you're going to lose weight, stick with it. It isn't a joke, and it isn't something to toy around with. I

encourage everyone to lose weight if you know for a fact that you aren't physically healthy. Losing weight will most

likely bring incredible happiness, not only at the moment, but most certainly in the long run. You will feel like a

completely new individual. If you are trying to lose weight, never give up. If you give up, you will most

likely not complete what you have started. It will alter your weight loss completely, and

you might not even return to it.

“My cousin tied to lose weight because he was tired of people picking on him. I would advise

teens not to let people bully them because of their weight,

you’re beautiful inside and out.”

“Teens should diet if they want to change their life style. When

you diet, you gain self confi-dence because you believe you

look better.”

“Teens diet because they don’t want to be overweight. They should diet only if they really

need it.”

“I tried to lose weight for my New Year’s resolution. I had a bad experience with diet-

ing because candy is good and McDonald’s is cheap.”

“Teens diet to improve their self image and become health-

ier. But students shouldn’t diet because we are young, we

should be active.”

Dieter Profile:

“I’ve kind of dieted. I’ve tried to be careful on what I eat on certain days because of my

wrestling matches so I won’t be overweight.”

“I’ve had a mediocre experience with diets. It’s alright if teens diet if they do it for the right

reasons and the healthy way.”

“I think teens shouldn’t diet because they should just be

themselves and not care what they look like.”

9 of students have had a harmful

e x p e r i e n c e with dieting

%Students who think teens should diet

Studnets who try to eat healthy on a regular basis

Students who have cut food intake dramit-cally to lose weight

Students who have regurgi-tated or used laxatives to lose weight

6852 66 52 72 106 78 130

Female

MaleRachelle Mourra/Pony Express

Senior Peter Kostis

Healthy or Harmful?

Story by Sahar Takshi