Your Dieting Daughter...Is She Starving For Attention?

by Carolyn Costin

The extraordinary popularity of books like Mary Pipher's Reviving Ophelia signals an important movement in this country; the tales of adolescent girls struggling to grow up and contend with powerful cultural forces that shape their world strike a chord in America. Equally compelling are the struggles of parents trying to raise healthy daughters amid the bombardment of distorted societal icons and symbols of insidious influences on the self-esteem of young girls --^ the link between body weight and personal worth. Your Dieting Daughter focuses on the essentials of nutrition, offering clear guidelines for healthy eating and dispelling many of the myths promoted by the diet industry. A concise and informative review of the most popular diet programs helps set the record straight on what's behind all of those promotional campaigns to which adolescent (and younger) girls are regularly exposed. The goal here is to help parents understand the kinds of pressure their daughters are under and to