This is because comments about weight are often predictors of unhealthy eating, bingeing and other eating disorders.
Rebecca Puhl, deputy director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at the University of Connecticut, said: ‘Parents who have a child who’s identified as having obesity may be worried, but the way those concerns are discussed and communicated can be really damaging. The research shows it can have a lasting impact.’
Dr. Puhl says this influence on girls can be particularly destructive because ‘girls are exposed to so many messages about thinness and body weight, and often women’s value is closely linked to their appearance’.
In the study, published in the journal Eating & Weight Disorders, 500 women in their 20s and early 30s who were asked questions about their body image and also asked to recall how often their parents commented about their weight.
The scientists found that whether the women were overweight or not, those who remembered parents’ comments were much more likely to think they needed to lose weight.
Professor Brian Wansink, the study’s lead author and director of Cornell University’s Food and Brand Lab, claimed the parents’ critical comments had a ‘scarring influence. A few comments were the same as commenting all the time. It seems to make a profound impression.’
In the UK, an NHS scheme designed to crack down on child obesity has caused controversy as some claim it labels youngsters as overweight from an early age.
The National Child Measurement Scheme calculates the BMI (body mass index) of children in the first and last year of primary school and, if they are deemed to be overweight, letters are sent to parents along with healthy eating advice.
But some parents have been angered by what they claim are one size fits all measurements, which often do not take account of how active the child is.
Daily Mail