Being called “fat” by friends or family may contribute to later developing eating disorders. The harsh word seems to carry a significant weight, a recent US study suggests.
The research team wrote in the Journal of Adolescent Health that any negative stereotypes linked to weight, social devaluation and pervasive mistreatment of heavier individuals is strongly implicated in disordered eating.
Previous studies have found that being teased about weight is associated with binge eating and unhealthy weight control behaviors in boys and increased dieting in girls.
Researchers wrote that the current study is one of the first to look at the long-term consequences of being labeled as “too fat.” Lead author Jeffrey Hunger, a psychologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, said: “How we talk about weight - especially with young girls - can have really negative effects on mental and physical health.”
“Labeling young girls as ‘too fat’ will never spur positive health behaviors; it is simply going to result in poor body image, unhealthy weight control practices, and disordered eating,” he told Reuters Health in an email.
There is a lot of research showing that weight stigma is related to disordered eating, but not much of it follows people across time, Hunger said.
Hunger and a colleague examined data on 2,036 girls participating in that larger, long-term study.
At age 14, the girls reported whether they had been told they were “too fat” by their parents, siblings, best girlfriends, any other teens or their teachers.
At ages 14 and 19, the girls completed a questionnaire designed to assess unhealthy weight control behaviors, bulimic tendencies, drive for thinness and body dissatisfaction. Girls reported whether in the past 30 days they had engaged in unhealthy behaviors such as not eating, vomiting, taking diet pills or using laxatives; at age 19, they were also asked about smoking and skipping meals as weight control methods.
