teens anD aPPetite suPPressants

With the images of waifish women such as Nicole Richie, Vic- toria Beckham, Keira Knightley, and Mary-Kate Olsen in the pages of magazines, it is no wonder that teen girls use appetite suppressants to lose pounds.

Consider Keira Knightley’s BMI of 16.4, for example, which puts her in the underweight cat- egory. She is perceived by many as an object of male desire. Even comments posted on the Internet below an article about her near-starvation body weight (105 pounds  at a height of 5’7”) have readers posting comments such as “she’s definitely too skinny, but she has fantastic abs. I would starve myself for those! Brad Pitt, on the other hand, also considered quite attractive, has a BMI of 27, which is the  average BMI for middle-aged American men. With these gender discrepancies among icons of beauty, it is no wonder that diet pills are much more a female issue than a male one.A study completed in 2006 at the University of Minne- sota found that the use of over-the-counter  diet pills by high school–age females had nearly doubled over a five-year period, from 7.5 percent to 14.2 percent. Most doctors will not prescribeweight-loss drugs to teens, particularly those with only mild weight issues. As a result, some teens might indiscriminately self-administer diet pills including hoodia, 5-HTP, and ephedra.The teens surveyed in this University of Minnesota study who were taking diet pills were also found to engage in fre- quent unhealthy eating behaviors, such as skipping meals, using laxatives, and forcing themselves to vomit. In addition, the diet-pill-popping teens were three times more likely to beoverweight.