Page One

Academics warned that destructive concerns about body image are filtering down to 6-and 7-year-olds during a conference on body image Thursday afternoon sponsored by UC Berkeley’s Center for Weight & Health. 

“We’re seeing this desire to lose weight at earlier and earlier ages,” said Joanne Ikeda, co-director of the center, citing a Stanford study of 13 elementary schools in northern California, released last year, which found that 35 percent of third-grade girls and 25 percent of boys wanted to lose weight. 

Ikeda said attempts to diet during pre-pubescent growth spurts can be particularly harmful.  

“If you reduce calorie intake, that growth is not going to take place,” she said. 

Jennifer O’Dea, a visiting professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at UC Berkeley, presented findings from a study she conducted in Australia in 2000, involving 470 adolescents ages 11 to 14, which found that general self-esteem education is more effective in improving body image than a program focused on food and eating disorders in particular. 

O’Dea’s “Everybody Is Different” program, tested in two schools, emphasized that “diversity is normal” and celebrated each student’s unique characteristics. 

Using a standard test called the “Eating Disorders Inventory,” the study measured lasting improvements in body image among those exposed to the curriculum, and declining body image in a control group. 

The study also measured an 8 percent growth in weight loss attempts among girls in the control group, compared to a 2 percent growth in the study group. 

O’Dea said previous studies, which emphasized direct education on eating disorders, had moderate effects on improving students’ knowledge about the topic, but did little to change behavior. 

Marilyn Wann, author of “Fat! So?,” and self-described “fat rebel,” said the nation must “break the connection” between notions of body type and fitness. 

“If everyone in America exercised for an hour a day and ate nothing but broccoli, there would still be a variety of body types,” she said. 

Ikeda pointed to a spate of recent studies which suggest that overweight people who exercise and eat well can reduce their risk for hypertension, diabetes and other maladies.  

Still, Ikeda acknowledged that there are significant health risks associated with obesity, and said there is not yet any evidence to suggest that overweight people who exercise and eat well face the same low risk as thin, fit people. 

O’Dea said the next wave of problems will be with boys, who are starting to exhibit the body image concerns that emerged with girls in the 1960s. 

O’Dea said that boys face a “double-edged” sword. They fear not only being too fat, but being too scrawny.