Afraid to Eat: Children and Teens in Weight Crisis [Hardcover]

Francie M. Berg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1997

Documenting the overwhelming physical and mental effects of the pressure to be thin, this book examines the way weight obsession destroys America’s youth. It describes four major weight and eating problems—eating disorders, dysfunctional eating, size prejudice, and being overweight—and shows healthy ways to change. A valuable resource for parents, teachers, and health professionals, it explains new ways to nurture children and prevent weight problems.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Afraid to Eat, by nutritionist Frances M. Berg, an internationally known authority on weight and eating, challenges America's obsession with weight and documents the terrible harm done by the quest for thinness. Afraid to Eat presents a convincing and terrifying message: diets don't work; in fact, they are killing children. The statistics are terrifying, riveting, angering. One in five teenagers is overweight. By age 11, most girls are no longer eating normally and many have potentially fatal eating disorders. Two-thirds of teenage girls in the U.S. have abnormal eating behavior, and half are severely undernourished. More and more teens are smoking for weight control. And the majority of children and adolescents have become afraid to eat.

Berg examines four major problems: eating disorders, dysfunctional eating, size prejudice, and being overweight. She discusses the forces that have contributed to these problems, and provides workable approaches to helping children learn to eat normally and attain the Canadian "Vitality" model of wellness: eating well, living actively, and reducing stress. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Library Journal

Though easy to trivialize, weight loss and excessive exercise can cause significant health problems, and treatment has ballooned into a major industry. Costin, a therapist and former victim of an eating disorder, focuses on the most pathological problems: anorexia and bulimia nervosa and binge eating. Though she analyzes their social milieu, offering a statement of "Thin Commandments," this is primarily a how-to-cope guide for family members of the afflicted. Topics include symptoms, underlying psychological causes, separate preventative advice for parents, and a useful evaluation of today's most popular weight-loss programs and principles. The kind of concrete examples and practical guidance that may accompany professional therapy are provided in a supportive manner. Berg's work is a more expansive and polemical book, addressing most aspects of America's weight "crisis." Berg, a nutritionist and editor/publisher of Healthy Weight Journal, serves up a feast of facts on four major problems: dysfunctional eating, eating disorders, size prejudice, and remedies for the overweight. Condemning "diets," she instead proposes a wellness paradigm based on the Canadian "vitality" model, which calls for moderation in eating habits and an active, playful lifestyle. The book contains advice for parents but emphasizes that social change is needed in schools, organized sports, and federal policies that focus too narrowly on antiobesity. Unlike other books on this topic, the unique problems of boys and minority children are also explored. Though sometimes superficial and alarmist in tone, Berg's book is a valuable consciousness raiser. Both books are recommended for public libraries for both parents and concerned professionals needing inspiration.?Antoinette Brinkman, Southwest Indiana Mental Health Ctr. Lib., Evansville
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 310 pages
• Publisher: Healthy Living Inst; 2 edition (July 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0918532531
• ISBN-13: 978-0918532534
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,605,194 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A cultural commentary with practical advice, April 5, 2000

By 

Sue Gilbert (South Burlington, Vermont) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Afraid to Eat: Children and Teens in Weight Crisis (Paperback)

To be overweight is to fail" . It sums up our society's attitude towards eating and body size today. This is a quote from 'AFRAID TO EAT: Children and Teens in Weight Crisis' by Frances M. Berg. While the book is a cultural commentary, it is also filled with practical advice on ways to prevent eating disorders, obesity, and dysfunctional eating.

The first step to help, is to help understand the roots of the problem. This book does that. It points out the many ways in which we are not nurturing our children, particularly our girls. We are a society that has become fatter and fatter, yet simultaneously bombards our kids with the message that they need to achieve a body size and shape that is biologically unsustainable for the majority of them. This may be the seed for eating disorders. How high levels of obesity and disordered eating and starving teens can coexist is explained. AFRAID TO EAT explores the many forces at play....cultural expectations, media, the role of family and athletics, peer pressure, and more. It explores the issue of size rejudice and lifestyle choices, both of which lead to eating disorders and obesity.

The second half of the book focuses on how to prevent eating disorders, how to make changes to promote normal eating where it doesn't exist, and how to intervene with childhood obesity. There are guidelines for healthy food choices, designs for new health approaches for families, how to include schools in prevention programs, and finally a call to action that challenges us to make changes in attitude (e.g. a greater appreciation for healthy lifestyles versus being thin), lifestyle (e.g. active living, improving phys ed programs in school), prevention (e.g. by promoting healthy attitudes and lifestyles and developing special prevention programs for schools and communities), health care (e.g. reduce size prejudice in health care, focus on improving health, not on ineffective weight loss) and knowledge ( e.g. improved communication to consumers, better education in medical school).

There is useful information in this book not only for a parent, but also for teachers and health care workers. Perhaps after reading it you can share it with your school nurse or phys ed teacher. I am sure you will find its approach not only informative but practical and useful. The word 'vitality' is used a lot in this book as it helps us focus eating away from dieting and size/shape obsession towards eating that promotes a healthy and 'vital' lifestyle.

I work as a professional nutritionist and see firsthand the consequences of the fear of eating. This book takes a big stab at addressing the revolutionary changes that need to be made in our personal and societal approaches towards eating. I recommend it to any who want to join in that revolution, or simply wish to help their own kids enjoy nutritious, guilt free eating for life.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Children & Teens Afraid to Eat, Helping Youth in Today's Wei, January 15, 2001

By 

Charlotte "A Healthy Human" (Hacienda Heights, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Children and Teens Afraid to Eat: Helping Youth in Today's Weight-Obsessed World (Hardcover)

Without a doubt, this book should be reading material for all parents before their first child is born.

We want to think our youth are active and healthy. During my years of teaching, I have been more and more disturbed at inactivity of our children, disruption of normal eating, and the amount of fat and sugar calories served in school lunch rooms.

The food the children who carry their lunch bring from home can be nourishing, but parents might be surprised if they watch their children eat. A child's lunch sack might have a good turkey sandwich with greens, two large cookies, a bar of candy, and a soft drink. The child almost always has the candy ond/or cookies at recess. When lunchtime comes, he often throws that good sandwich in the trash with the apple. The food he brought from home has now become two cookies, candy, and a soft drink.

During recess too many children are inactive. Day after day, we watched the same ones stand around talking all recess while they eat their candy or cookies. After observing this for a few years, we scheduled a quarter-mile run twice a week and a full mile on Friday for P. E. Also, three times a week we have exercises appropriate to the age groups. You'd be surprised how many look forward to all the activity once they get used to it. We think it also stimulates brain activity in the classroom.

On the other hand, there are the healthy, active children who might have a cookie at recess, then play hard. They eat their sandwich and apple at lunch and the cookies and are eaten or saved for after school. In these children's lunch boxes there is porbably no candy. What's happening here? Berg says studies show that parents that don't "bug" their children about eating, produce children who don't have hang-ups about eating.

Berg writes that research shows that family attitudes can play a big part in the future eating patterns of their children. When a healthy baby's hunger is satisfied, it will then stop drinking. Parents who "urge him to finish the bottle, disguise cereal with applesauce to get it down" and thus feel frustrated for fear the baby isn't eating enough, is teaching the infant that it's important to eat more than his body needs. All parents should read carefully and think about what Berg has to say.

A parent who "hesitates to let a chubby toddler have seconds, makes a preschooler stay at the table until she finishes her peas, insists that the child eat `two bites of each food,' or lectures a school-age child to get him to drink his milk...is overmanaging, and it teaches children to ignore their natural signals of hunger and satiety."

By allowing a child to listen and heed these natural signals, Berg tells us that this is an important way to begin the youngster on a lifetime of healthy eating patterns.

Americans serve too large portions. A friend of mine returned from a long vacation in England and remarked that she didn't see an overweight English person all the time she was there. I said I was surprised, I always thought Britons were gluttons. She said she did, too, but she didn't see any.

Berg tells why. "A Healthy Weight Journal subscriber in London sent me an article titled: `Portions all out of Proportion' that decried `America's elephantine cuisine.' The writer compares national foods: hot dogs (350 calories in the U.S. versus 150 calories in Britain), cookies (493 vs. 65), ice cream cone (625 vs.160), muffin (705 vs. 158), and a meal of steak and fries (2,060 vs. 730). Until recently, our very large muffins were called "jumbo muffins," the article notes, now they are simply `muffins.' " Apparently, we are the ones who have become the nation of gluttons.

Berg says that even some our food that is considered healthy, non-junk food is astoundingly high in calories. And the more a child above the age of 3 is served, the more he eats. Big portions promote over-eating. Berg says studies show that our school-age children are getting heavier every year. Younger and younger children are becoming anorexic to stay slim, an astounding number alternately diet and binge. These patterns used to be found among those high school age and older, now they appear among elementary children.

Berg says problems such as eating disorders, dysfunctional eating, undernutrition of teenage girls trying to be thin, hazardous weight loss, and size prejudice all are increasing. Surprisingly, all that can be prevented. The author, Francie Berg, when asked why she wrote this book, says she grows more and more concerned about the appalling research on children and youth eating problems. The true facts were there, but no one was telling those who need to know: our parents and teachers.

Now that she's telling us-we need to listen.

Berg's research is well done. Anyone who doubts what she writes, can read the studies for themselves as her sources are well documented.

Jeanie T.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How to break free of weight obsession, March 13, 2001

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Children and Teens Afraid to Eat: Helping Youth in Today's Weight-Obsessed World (Afraid to Eat Series) (Paperback)

Two important guides to weight and eating are presented in these excellent surveys by Frances Berg. Children And Teens Afraid To Eat (0-918532-55-8, ...) examines six major eating and weight problems, from undernutrition of teens to eating disorders and obesity, blending statistics with a survey of underlying social causes and the actions which need to be taken to help teens. Women Afraid To Eat (62-0, ....) documents the physical and psychological harm done by social images which focus on the detriments of eating. From fad diets to weight prejudices, this tells women how to break free of weight obsession.