According to a recent study of high school girls conducted in the United States, 53 per cent of them said they were unhappy with their bodies.
Glamour magazine polled 33,000 American women. The majority of the women said they would rather be thin than loved, and the average woman said she would like to lose 10 to 15 pounds.
A generation ago, fashion models weighed 8 per cent less than the average woman. Today, they weigh 23 per cent less.
According to David Pilon of the Victoria General Hospital's Eating Disorder Clinic in Halifax, 90 to 95 per cent of anorexics and bulimics are women.
It is estimated that 200,000 to 300,000 Canadian women aged 13 to 40 have anorexia nervosa and twice as many have bulimia. These illnesses are fatal for 10 to 15 per cent of those affected.
As reported by the Canadian Press, one study of 11 year old girls found that 44 per cent were on a diet to lose weight.
