Happiness better than image for young girls

GIRLS and women care more about health and happiness than looks and weight, new research shows.

But many females find it hard to fight food guilt and the power of fad diets.

Nearly eight in 10 females say health and wellbeing are more important than appearance or meeting a goal weight, a Galaxy Research survey of 1000 girls and women found.

Despite this, one third of teenagers and two thirds of young women say they have dieted in the past 12 months.

The national survey of females aged 12 to 55, found 94 per cent of respondents felt guilty about the food they eat.

Dietitian Dr Joanna McMillan said girls as young as 15 were already feeling “the same levels of food guilt as women twice their age”.

“When we look at girls and women who have recently dieted, we see higher levels of food guilt, sadness, self-criticism and regret — half of Australian girls and women shouldn’t be feeling this way,” she said.

The findings showed women cared more about feeling good as they age.

Nearly nine out of 10 women aged 50-55 care more about health than appearance, compared to seven out of 10 teenagers.

Despite this, teenagers are very health conscious, with twice as many (18 per cent) caring about eating a balanced diet than reaching a goal weight (10 per cent).

Girls are also able to define what it means to be healthy, singling out eating the right foods, having a good state of mind and exercising regularly.

Dr McMillan said women and girls needed to “forget fad diets, detoxes and any food trend that restricts what we eat or labels food as good or bad.

“Depriving ourselves of food doesn’t work.

“In fact it sets us up to fail,” she said.

She said the key was to eat a wide variety of whole foods every day.

“If you have a treat, savour every mouthful.”

Netball Australia sports dietitian Kerry Leech said the early to mid-teen years were “critical for establishing a healthy relationship with food”.