Dieting makes little girls fatter, US study finds

WASHINGTON - Girls who are starting to get too fat at age 5 are often experienced dieters by the age of 9, but put on extra fat instead of taking it off, US researchers said yesterday.

Their study showed that children and their parents were well-aware when they weighed too much, but did not know the most successful ways to slim down.

Jennifer Shunk and Leann Birch, of Pennsylvania State University, studied 153 girls living in central Pennsylvania.

Those who weighed too much tried to diet, but ended up binge-eating, the researchers wrote in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

The unhappier the girls were with their weight, the more they tried to diet, but they failed.

This supports other research showing that "youths' attempts at weight control may promote weight gain", Ms Shunk and Professor Birch wrote.

At age 5, 32 of the girls were considered at risk of being overweight by Centres for Disease Control and Prevention standards.

They were checked again at ages 7 and 9.

At 7, girls at risk of being overweight were eating significantly more than those not at risk, the researchers wrote.

The girls were asked about the foods they ate and answered questions such as, "Do you try to only eat a little bit on purpose so that you won't get fat?"

The girls were left in a room with toys and snacks and told to play or eat.

Researchers watched to see what the children ate.

The heavier girls tended to munch snacks even if they were not hungry.

The researchers said their study supported other research that showed when people tried to diet by simply eating too little, they eventually set themselves up for binges.

Mothers could help this along by forbidding the girls to eat snacks, they said.

"Even during the preschool period, before any evidence for the emergence of dietary restraint, maternal feeding practices that restrict children's access to palatable foods can promote children's overeating," the researchers wrote.

Middle-class families, especially, try to restrict snacks because they do not want overweight children.

- REUTERS