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Randall Jeppesen Reporting Letting your daughters read magazines full of weight loss and dieting articles could increase their chances of trying extreme weight-loss measures or even having an eating disorder. That's the conclusion of a new study in the journal "Pediatrics."
When you are waiting at the grocery checkout counter there's always those magazines. Some say ‘Lose Ten Pounds in a Week' or ‘The New Fail Proof Diet'. These magazines can be more harmful than we may realize.
Steve Thomsen, BYU professor: "(They) make promises or even in some cases suggest that even the very food that we are buying is the enemy."
Thomsen has done similar research here in Utah that shows frequent reading of those magazines about losing weight can lead girls to extremes such as vomiting and laxatives.
Steve Thomsen: "Most people will never look like the fashion images that we see in those magazines."
He says parents with daughters reading these magazines should talk with them about body image. Even if the article has good advice the message the reader often perceives is that only ultra-skinny people are happy.
