STRIVING FOR PERFECTION

Youngsters face an ever-growing battle with their bodies...

Have you ever been grateful that you’re not young any more? Weird question given that youth is often viewed as some kind of holy grail, but increasingly it’s become more of a poisoned chalice.

Being a kid was relatively straightforward a few decades ago, but now? Fear has overtaken fun with an endless list of things to worry about from climate change and pandemics to war. Even the recent heatwave was catastrophised to such an extent that any innocent joy to be taken from a hot summer’s day evaporated faster than a puddle.

And there’s no escape. The advent of social media and platforms like Tiktok mean youngsters are plugged into a constant stream of anxiety and mixed messages. Especially when it comes to how they look. Back in the 1970s, adverts for slimming products like Slimcea and Nimble bread made your mum fret about her ‘big bum’.

But we weren’t constantly bombarded with images of how our bodies should look via a small screen with a seemingly direct link to an airbrushed and filtered version of reality.

Nor were we living with the constant ‘nanny state’ reminders about obesity and how we’re one of the fattest countries in Europe.

Now ‘five a day’ messages battle with high streets lined with cheap fried-chicken shops and supermarkets groaning with highly processed snacks and treats.

Even adults are confused so what chance do the young have? If stuff is so bad for us why is there so much of it? And why is it cheaper than the ‘healthy’ stuff?

We’re messing with kids’ heads supposedly for the sake of their own good. We’re now in a situation where, while many children are dangerously obese, many more who aren’t are now dieting.

A just-published study by the University of Oxford, which analysed data from more than 34,000 youngsters aged eight to 17, has found that the percentage of those on a selfimposed diet had risen from 21.4% to 26.4%.

Most worryingly was that the research found a ‘massive jump’ in weight-loss attempts coinciding with the introduction of the National Child Measurement Programme where kids were weighed and measured in school with letters sent home saying whether they were ‘fat’ or not.

Can you imagine the effect that would have on an 11-year-old already worried about

‘WE’RE MESSING WITH KIDS’ HEADS’

puppy fat? Eating disorder hell right there courtesy of the state.

And did it stop the obesity it was designed to tackle? No. That situation has got steadily worse.

So we now appear to have a generation of youngsters so traumatised by the whole thing they’re either verging on dangerous obesity or anorexia.

The research also found a huge increase in the percentage of overweight teenagers (aged 13-17) trying to lose weight – from just over 4% to 57.5%.

Kids are trapped in a junk-food society that is also obsessed with appearance, success and the myth of perfection. Messages rammed down their throats by social media and us, the adults.

The other message is that food is either ‘good’ or ‘bad’ and to be associated with being happy or sad. Feeling your feelings has been replaced by eating them. And controlling your food then becomes a way of controlling your feelings.

The good news is that with careful parental guidance, kids on needlessly dangerous diets or binge-eating to anaesthetise themselves can come out the other side as healthy, balanced adults.

Eating has become a minefield for a generation force-fed a Love Island version of perfection on a diet of fast food and obesity warnings.