How Does the Mass Media Influence Girl’s Weight Concerns, Weight Control Behaviours, and Perception of Body Weight and Shape?

Around the globe, there is a growing concern for the increase in young females judging their own body weight and shape. They often engage in unhealthy weight control behaviours in strive to obtain an “ideal weight/shape” recognized by their peers. There are many sociocultural factors that work in conjunction, promoting young girls’ desire to be thinner; one of these being the mass media, or more specifically the printed media such as magazines.  In a research article “Exposure to the Mass Media and Weight Concerns Among Girls” published in the Pediatrics, Field et al. (1999) used cross-sectional survey administered in school to determine the influence of the printed media on girls’ weight concerns, weight control behaviours, and perception of body weight and shape.

The survey method was based on a questionnaire that investigated 548 girls ranging from grades 5 to 12 who attended public schools in the working class suburbs of Boston, MA. First, females self-reported their height and weight. Next, the girls were asked for their frequency in fashion magazine reading and were later classified as infrequent readers (never or once a month), moderate-frequency readers (2-5 times a month), and high-frequency readers (2 times a week or daily). Lastly, the girls were asked if the women picture in magazines influenced their own feelings about weight and shape and if the pictures make them want to lose weight. In addition, the girls were asked if they have gone on a diet and/or initiated exercise to lose weight because of an article in a magazine.

It was found that the prevalence of self-body dissatisfaction and wanting to lose weight were doubled compared to the prevalence of overweight. This indicates girls with healthy weights were not satisfied with their body weight and shapes.  There was a correlation between the influence of the media and the frequency of reading women’s fashion magazines. A positive linear association was found between the frequencies of magazine reading to (a) dieting to lose weight, (b) exercise to lose weight, (c) wanting to lose weight because of the magazine article, and (d) feelings that pictures in magazines influence their idea of perfect body shape. In conclusion, frequent magazine readers were two to three times more likely than infrequent readers to undergo dieting and exercise behaviours to lose weight.

These findings suggests that girls in this school-based study were dissatisfied with their body weight and shape and were influenced by the frequency of reading fashion magazines. The frequency of reading these magazines was positively associated with the prevalence of dieting and/or exercise to lose weight and having gone on a diet and/or deciding to exercise due to the magazine article. This study shows that the print media has strong impact on young girls’ perception of their weight and body shape and how the media dictate the perfect body image.

The major limitation of this study rests upon it being cross-sectional, thus limiting the causality aspect. This means that girls who are dissatisfied with their body shape and weight to begin with may read more fashion magazines which enforce their negative emotions.

In conclusion, the printed media such as magazines affect girls’ idea of the perfect body image (weight and shape). Furthermore, the frequency of fashion magazine reading is positively associated with the frequency of dieting and exercise to lose weight. Moreover, girls were affected by magazine articles to promote dieting and exercising to lose weight. The results suggest that the print media aimed at young girls would affect them greatly, and hence should publicize positive images instead of mass articles related to skinniness.

Reference

Field, A.E., Cheung, L., Wolf, A.M., Herzog, D.B., Gortmaker, S.L., and Colditz, G.A. (1999) Exposure to the  Mass Media and Weight Concerns Among Girls. Pediatrics, 103, E36

How Physical Activities Promote a Healthy Weight and Lifestyle

In order to acquire a healthy weight, we must manage our personal lifestyle. This includes monitoring the food we consume and the physical activities we perform. Monitoring the food we eat is rather an easy task. The easiest way to start acting is to minimize the intake of unwanted saturated fat from junk food and calories from simple sugars such as soft drinks. We can make healthy food choices such as consuming more vegetables which are high in fibre and vitamins and proteins that are low in fat content. This way, we can control the things that are going into our body.

But why do we need to perform physical activities? There is a misconception thinking that people who regularly exercise are those who want to lose weight. The truth is that we would need to perform some kind of physical activity to balance out the caloric intake that comes from the food we consume (1). If not, the excess calories would eventually be stored as fat. Hence, physical activity is closely related to maintaining a healthy weight.

Some people believe that dieting to achieve a healthy weight and performing physical activities to achieve a healthy weight would give the same result. However, doing exercise on a regular basis would be a healthier choice due to the fact that it provides the function of weight management as well as to help reduce the risk of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, type II diabetes, osteoporosis, arthritis, high blood pressure, and some forms of cancer (2). In order to maintain a healthy weight, we also need a positive mood and a sense of well-being. Not only does exercise give you a fit physical body, it also help improves the psychological state of mind such as reducing the symptoms of depression and anxiety that may be caused by stress (2, 3). 

Lastly, people who are beginning to exercise to obtain a healthy weight should start off slowly. Instead of engaging in an intensive training program to begin with, we should build up the amount of physical activities on a daily or weekly basis, depending on the person’s health and capabilities. Research showed that walking quickly can be as good as jogging (4). Therefore, a beginner should choose to walk quickly for 30 minutes and can increase the pace or the amount of time as he/she feels comfortable. But the most important piece of advice is: Don’t Quit!

Artificially Sweetened Beverages Really the Best Alternative?

An increasing number of people are being more self-conscious about their calorie intake.  One of the most common calorie trap people fall into comes from the beverage they drink – soft drinks. Here, I have used Coca Cola as our example since it is currently the best-selling soft drink in the world. In a 355mL can of Coca Cola Classic, it contains 39 grams of simple sugar making up 140 calories (1, 2)!

Amount of sugar in various sizes of Coca Cola Classic

With the general public recognizing the trend towards a low calorie diet, so does the Coca Cola Company. In response to this, they have two sweet alternatives: Diet Coca Cola and Coca Cola Zero (3). Both of these products have abandoned the use of sugar but used artificial sweetener instead. The result seemed to be quite profound where both products have zero calories per serving! This appears to be an incredible alternative for soft drink lovers who need to control/maintain their weight and sugar intake (especially for diabetics and obese individuals).

Coca Cola Diet

Coca Cola Zero

However, there are many health concerns related to artificial sweeteners that have not been entirely resolved (4). The most common artificial sweetener used in sugar-free beverages is aspartame for its inexpensiveness and commercially availability.  Even though it has been approved by various countries around the world, many controversial side effects (e.g. headaches, mood disorder, cancer, etc.) have been suggested to be caused by aspartame. Another fact unknown to the majority of the general public is that aspartame has an Acceptable Daily Intake value. Although most people would not reach the ADI value, it is possible that some individuals may over-consume aspartame over a long period of time.

Aspartame

Acesulfame Potassium

Another popular sweetener is called Acesulfame Potassium (a.k.a. AceK). Despite the fact that it is being used in over 100 countries around the world, it lacks proper testing and long term studies regarding health concerns (5). Some scientist proposed that AceK to be carcinogenic leading to the cause of liver and kidney problems, and cancer in humans. Although no studies have supported these findings, there are also no studies to go against these theories. 

Even though the two artificial sweeteners noted above have been approved by various food and safety departments all over the world and have been used in popular beverages for several decades, their safety concerns have not been fully resolved to ensure complete satisfaction. In addition, in our example Diet Coca Cola and Coca Cola Zero, their use of artificial sweetener is not limited to aspartame and AceK. The combination of sweeteners varies, depending on which country you are located and the availability of different sweeteners at that time (3). Therefore, it lacks consistency and credibility as to how sweeteners would affect people. In conclusion, ingesting 39 grams of simple sugar in one simple beverage is harmful to your body. But are you sure you want to ingest a chemical compound that has no proven benefit to your body? If you just want to quench your thirst, water (possibly with a slice of lemon) would do the trick!

6.       

Fatal Flaws of Alternative Weight Lost/Maintenance Programs

In a technology advance world we live in today, information can be spread quickly via the World Wide Web. However, many businessmen saw this as a great opportunity to sell their product that may lack research supported data, credibility, and even approval from food safety, etc. One of these websites I came across related to my topic of maintaining healthy weight was the Master Cleanse Diet (1). It states that this diet plan will allow you to lose 20 pounds in 10 days so that you can restore a healthier, cleaner body.

Screen Shot 1

From initial reading of this website and then doing some research on the internet, I found that the Master Cleanse Diet is not supported by any experimental study using randomized/ double blind study to prove that it is an effective system to lose and maintain a healthy weight. Instead, what the author is trying to sell is individuals’ experiences who have tried this method (the author himself/herself is actually a participant who was devoted to optimize the program and advertised the revised program to others!).

Double Blind Study

For most people of the general public, losing up to 20lbs in 10 days is an unhealthy task, if not impossible. This system stresses the fact that there would be no exercise or physical activities involved during this time frame. This is likely to mean that this system promotes short term dieting rather than a long term lifestyle change to maintain a healthy weight. In order to have a healthy weight loss, it is recommended to aim at losing a steady 1-2 lbs a week to ensure that you are losing the fat instead of water and muscle mass (2, 3).

Screen Shot 2

 The Master Cleanse Diet emphasized that there is a shortcut in losing weight. There seems to be a controversy on what the author is trying to say here regarding the program. With further research about Master Cleanse diet by searching on Wikipedia (4), I found that it is classified as a liquid diet program that involves drinking only a mixture of lemon juice, maple syrup, cayenne pepper, and laxative tea/saline solution; no solid food is eaten during the program. However, the author of this website suggested there is a list of safe food that allows you to “cheat”. Hence, this information about the program suggests that it is in fact a short term diet plan instead of offering interested individuals a long term option to maintain weight and have a healthy body. The correct way to lose weight in a healthy manner would be to balance your “energy in” and “energy out” properly (5).

Maintaining Weight

Losing Weight

Gaining Weight

          

In my point of view, one of the major flaws about the system is its emphasis on keeping your metabolism running high and burning fat while on a no fibre, carbohydrate, and meat diet. On the other hand, in order to burn fat, you would need to build up your muscle mass which would require the intake of various food groups. Eliminating an entire food group (or even several good groups!) will neglect you from a healthy, well-rounded diet and hence create nutritional imbalance (2).

Screen Shot 3

Lastly, the Master Cleanse Diet program uses many celebrities to promote their program. We do not know how much money these programs would pay professional actors to advertise their products. The use actors may distort the self image of teenagers or adolescents if they were to view the celebrities as their role model. However, even if it has positive results toward certain individuals, it does not mean that it is useful for everyone around the world (6).