Jennifer McPhee
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Nov 13/02) - Gwen Young, a teacher at Sir John Franklin high school, believes eating disorders are more common in Yellowknife than most people think.

But can bringing up the subject of weight with overweight or obese children lead to an eating disorder?

- Primary school age children spend on average 25 hours a week watching television. - One-third of Canadian children are overweight. - Between 10 to 25 per cent of teenagers are overweight and between 20 and 50 per cent of adults have a weight problem. - Between 1994 and 2001, the rate of obesity in adults increased by almost six per cent in the NWT. - Obese children are more likely to become obese adults. - Obesity is the leading cause of diabetes.

She believes telling a child they are fat can cause problems, especially between the ages 11 to 14.

Later in high school, it's not such an issue.

"I think students at this age are pretty with it. If somebody told them they were fat, they wouldn't jump on any bandwagon."

Young also said "looking good" is what motivates about 75 per cent of teenagers who are interested in health.

Do they care about their health years down the road?

"No," she said. "These guys are the 'Me generation.' They care about right now. It's hard for them to think five, 10, 20 years down the road."

Diabetes educator Mabel Wong said parents shouldn't shy away from the subject of weight, but approach it as something the family needs to work on -- and not single out one child.

"These things can be a trigger to disordered eating," she said. "But you can't cause them to have anorexia if you talk about eating lower fat meals and eating in a healthy way.

"Anorexia is a complex condition. It's not a nutritional problem, it's a psychological problem."