Smoking

Youth smoke to control weight
Children who worry about their weight are smoking likely to contemplate and experiment with smoking at ages 9 to 14. At this age 10 percent had used cigarettes and 7 percent of girls and 5 percent of boys were contemplating smoking in the next year, in a recent study of over 15,000 children. Concerns about weight and weight control behaviors, including dieting, purging, and exercising to lose weight, were higher among these youth and the few regular smokers than among those who had never smoked and did not plan to try cigarettes in the next year. Of the girls, 15 percent of contemplators and 14 percent of experimenters and users misperceived themselves as overweight, compared with 10 percent of those who did not contemplate smoking.
   The researchers say it is important for programs directed at youth to address healthy methods of weight maintenance and dispel the notiion of smoking as a method of weight control. Smoking among high school students increased from 27.5 percent in 1991 to 36.4 percent in 1997. (Healthy Weight Journal 2000:14:5;67 / Tomeo CA, Field AE, Berkey CS, et al. Weight concerns, weight control behaviors, and smoking initiation. Pediatrics 1999;104:918-924, Website: www.pediatrics.org)

Anti-smoking forces deny thinness issue
   Denial of health risks is common among smokers, says the American Cancer Society. But the society features its own form of denial, charges Frances M. Berg, an international specialist on children's eating and weight problems. "Every story I've seen coming out of the health community ignores the critical problem that even more teenage girls than boys are smoking today -- and that the reason is our national obsession with thinness," says Berg, a licensed nutritionist and author of "Afraid to Eat: Children and Teens in Weight Crisis."   More girls are taking up smoking and at younger ages as they grasp at every straw to control their weight, says Berg.
   Her book reveals that 40 percent of white high school girls smoke occasionally, compared with 37 percent of white boys (at least one cigarette a month). White girls are also most likely smoke frequently —  nearly 21 percent smoke 20 cigarettes or more a month, compared with just 18 percent of white boys. Black and Mexican American teens smoke much less. These national figures come from the 1995 Youth Risk Behavior survey by the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. 
   "It's absurd that anti-kids-smoking stories focus on Joe Camel —  when the major problem is the subliminal thinness message in every smoking ad in magazines targeted to women," says Berg. 
   Former secretary of Health, Education and Welfare Joseph Califano, Jr., agrees it is urgent to confront this message.  Writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, he confesses that the jump in girls' smoking began during his tenure in the late 1970s, "to the point where for almost two decades teenage girls have been puffing away at rates exceeding or equal to those of teenage boys." 
   Califano says he regrets not dealing with the fear of weight gain early in the fight against smoking. "Tobacco companies play shrewdly on this fear... That's what makes Virginia Slims and Capri Superslims — with their names, slim cigarette outlines, and extremely thin models — so attractive to teenage girls." 
   Although studies find that people who quit smoking often gain about 10 pounds above the normal weight gain of smokers, Berg's research shows they weigh about the same as those who never smoked. This is consistent with studies that show people who quit smoking "catch up" with their peers who don't smoke, she points out. Yet girls and women fear this and are less likely to quit smoking than men. 
   The Healthy People 2000 goal for the nation is to reduce smoking by youth so no more than 15 percent are regular cigarette smokers by age 20. 
   "Meeting this goal by the year 2000 is impossible if the health community continues to insist on extreme thinness. Yet it's ‘politically incorrect' to criticize this policy that causes more kids to smoke," Berg writes. 
   Her book charges that the health community exaggerates the risks of obesity while minimizing the risks of eating disorders, dysfunctional eating and hazardous weight loss methods, including smoking. A balance is needed, she insists. "Afraid to Eat" is available in bookstores or by calling 1-800-888-4741 toll free.

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