Diet of gossip magazines linked to teenage eating disorders 20
February 2012 By Carolyn Allen Teenagers who read gossip
magazines are more likely to engage in unhealthy eating
behaviours such as binge eating, skipping meals or making
themselves sick after meals, according to an ESRC-funded study.
These unhealthy eating behaviours can lead to serious eating
disorders, such as anorexia or bulimia, which are a growing
public health problem in the UK. Beat, the charity behind Eating
Disorders Awareness Week, says that the most accurate statistics
available suggest that 1.6 million people in the UK suffer from
an eating disorder, but that the figure could be much higher.
The study, the first to identify an association between media
exposure and changes in eating behaviour in teenagers, was led
by Dr James White, a research associate at DECIPHer (Centre for
the Development and Evaluation of Complex Interventions for
Public Health Improvement). The researchers asked over 500
youngsters from South Wales aged between