can we not weigh our young people, please?
For the better part of the past two decades, the government and a number of other organisations have been shouting about “childhood obesity” and have implemented a number of measures to “fight” it. The most recent attempt was put forward last week by the Australian College of Nursing to “normalise” the collection and discussion of weight data of all children to “ensure the maintenance of healthy weight”.
As a Clinical Nutritionist and body image educator that spends almost every week in schools interacting with teenagers, I can’t begin to tell you how problematic the proposition to weigh our young people is.
An alternative approach - teaching young people about how they can ADD new and colourful foods to their diet to support their digestion, immune system and mental health... groundbreaking.
This year alone, I have interacted with hundreds of young people across the country, many of whom struggle deeply with their body image and are afraid of their bodies changing as they enter puberty.
If you have gone through puberty, you will know that we don’t just wake up one morning fully developed (wouldn’t it have been nice if we did). The way we progress through puberty is largely driven by our genetics. Some young people enter puberty tall and thin. Others enter puberty shorter and fatter. Neither is right or wrong, every young person is different. Weighing our young people will ultimately categorise one of these as right and the other as wrong.
You might be thinking, “these measures have been proposed to support young people with their health and it is going to be done in a way that is gentle.” I hear you, but I want you to think about something else for a moment. Focussing on weight also encourages something else – seeing weight as a measurement of a person’s health and, by extension, as a reflection of the behaviours they are engaging in to be in ‘good health’.
You will be forgiven for thinking that a person’s weight is a marker for their health. We have been conditioned to see health as something that can be assessed solely based on the way that a person appears. The reality is that health isn’t something you can see.
Research has shown that children as young as three can have a weight bias – that is, they are able to hold a negative attitude or belief towards a person based on their weight. It doesn’t stop at three, I can tell you that much. The Butterfly Foundation’s 2023 Body Kind Youth Survey found that 77% of our young people have experienced appearance-based bullying, much of which has occurred in schools.
We know that criticism from peers about appearance contributes negatively to a young person’s belief about their own appearance and is correlated with lower levels of self-worth. In addition to that, we also know that when a young person is concerned about their weight, they are more likely to engage in harmful behaviours such as skipping breakfast, dieting and binge eating, fasting, not eating at school, vomiting after meals, and using laxatives inappropriately in an effort to lower the number on the scale.
Of course, we want our young people to be in good health so that they can grow, play, and learn, but their weight should not be the metric by which we measure their health.
People that exist in larger bodies can be much healthier than those who exist in smaller bodies. They may be able to identify feelings of hunger and fullness, be in tune with their body’s need for rest, have a diverse diet, be in good mental health, move their body every day, and have meaningful social connections. All of these are markers of great health.
Just last month we were celebrating the body diversity represented at the Olympics and how amazing it was to see so many different bodies be able to achieve such phenomenal success. If you had weighed some of those Olympians as young people, they likely would have been classified as “above a healthy weight”. I think that any rational human being could look at those athletes and say that they are healthy, fit and well… even if their weight falls outside of arbitrary measures, which let’s be honest are outdated and unhelpful.
I’m not going to sit here and say that we shouldn’t be concerned about the health and wellbeing of our young people, of course we should, but what I am saying is that the current approach is coated in shame and is going to make our young people feel flat, rather than inspired. So, what can we do to promote a healthy relationship with food and body in our young people?
As a start, we need to teach them how to appreciate and celebrate the body that they’re in. Research shows that men and women who accept and appreciate their body as it is today, are far more likely to engage in positive health behaviours.
Next, we need to ask them questions that are going to have a meaningful impact on their health. Invite them into conversations where they can talk about their ability to manage stress, how many hours of sleep they’re getting, how supported they feel by their friends and family, if they feel comfortable when they move their body, if they’re able to go to the bathroom, and how they feel after they eat. These are metrics of health that are specific, measurable and health focussed.
Lastly, we need to look at ourselves and the example we are modelling to them. If we are telling our young people to get on a scale, we are teaching them that weight is a meaningful metric for health.
Keep our young people off the scales please, we don’t need another generation that wakes up every morning and has their worth determined by a number. We can do better than this.
Angelica Pupillo is a clinical nutritionist (BHSc) and the founder of This is Your Body. She is passionate about helping teens build a joyful relationship with food and their bodies.
Want to learn more? I offer presentations and workshops to teachers and parents to support them in navigating these issues. I know we all care so much about supporting young people, and helping them to feel confident and proud in their body, so I can’t wait to connect with you!
We can chat here!
