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 Posted: Wed Aug 22, 2012 8:44 am
Young girls prefer look over health
August 15th 2012
"Washington: College age women place looks and counting calories above health, say US researchers. Maria Len-Rios, associate professor of strategic communication, Suzanne Burgoyne, professor of theater, and undergraduates from the University of Missouri (UM) studied how such women view their bodies and how they feel about ads aimed at women.
"During our focus group conversations, we learned that young people don't think about nutrition when it comes to eating," Len-Rios said. "They think more about calorie-counting, which is not necessarily related to a balanced diet."
The focus groups included college-age women, college-age men and mothers of college-age women, who discussed how body image is associated with engaging in restrictive diets, irregular sleep patterns and over-exercising, according to a Missouri statement.
"We receive so many conflicting media messages from news reports and advertising about how we should eat, how we should live and how we should look," Len-Rios said.
"Some participants said they realise images of models are digitally enhanced, but it doesn't necessarily keep them from wanting to achieve these unattainable figures - this is because they see how society rewards women for 'looking good'," added Len-Rios.
The researchers also completed in-depth interviews with nutritional counselors who said lack of time and unhealthy food environments can keep college-age students from getting good nutrition.
"Eating well takes time, and, according to health professionals, college students are overscheduled and don't have enough time to cook something properly or might not know how to prepare something healthful," Len-Rios said.
These findings were presented at the annual Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Conference in Chicago."
http://post.jagran.com/young-girls-prefer-look-over-health-1345031351#
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Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2012 7:15 pm
Very true. I remember some of my college friends would focus on buying 100 calorie packs of things like cookies instead of just *not eating cookies*
There's a lot to be said about eating healthy things. The fiber in them, the natural fats, and sugars - they make you feel good. You don't have to add salt to broccoli - it's naturally savory and delicious! The fiber keeps your food moving through your intestines, it stimulates to glucagon to use the energy already stored in your fat and muscles, it slows your absorption of carbs to help you avoid a blood sugar crash and an unnecessary 3 hour nap. Things like spinach, lentils, eggs contain betaine and choline to help your cells move energy molecules into your mitochondria to make ATP. These colorful fruits and vegetables have vitamins and minerals that your body uses up in its metabolic processes. This gives you SO MUCH MORE than worrying about a simple calorie count.
I know the calorie count can help at first. It helps you limit those empty calorie foods for which you've grown a habit. It helps you figure out what a real portion size might be. It helps you be mindful that if you eat some of this one thing now, you should probably limit some other unnecessary thing somewhere else. At the very least it forces you to be mindful of your body and not just ignore it (like many college students do.)
But calories are not the be-all and end-all. Even if you limit yourself to a 1200 calorie diet, if all you're eating are cookies, teddy grahams, and potato chips, you're not going to get all of the nutrients your body even needs to function right. Furthermore a lot of those refined prepackaged foods contain a lot of chemicals that your body did not get used to eating in the past 200,000 years. Your body stores toxins that it can't deal with in your fat cells. No matter how many calories you limit, you can still have a belly pouch that you don't like because blind calorie counting isn't healthy.
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