#45: Diets for kids and teens: What does the research really say?

with Louise Adams, clinical psychologist

listen here

Louise%2BAdams.jpg

In this episode we discuss…

  • We recorded this episode before the devastating fires began in Australia. Please visit the Australian Red Cross to learn what you can do to help.

  • louise’s background and perspective on how diet culture impacts mental health

  • louise’s advocacy against WW (formerly weight watchers)

  • the big business of weight loss and why companies target kids and teens

  • how diet companies depend on weight cycling to create “repeat customers”

  • how weight loss programs prey on well-meaning parents’ guilt about their children’s health

  • the research used to justify the kurbo app

  • the fast track to health trial - a weight loss experiment in australia that involves intermittent fasting for teens

  • why adolescence is a particularly problematic time to undergo a semi-starvation experiment

  • global pushback and advocacy against the fast track trial

  • the pilot trial used to justify it, and louise’s criticism of both the research methods and ethics

  • interpreting the results of the pilot trial

  • the difference when you read an original research paper vs. what is publicized in the media

  • how the fast track trial harms vulnerable youth populations

  • louise’s breakdown of the research used to claim that eating disorder risk is not affected by dieting in teens

  • compassion for parents who are sold on the promises made by researchers and companies

  • alternatives for parents to support health behaviors in their child without focusing on weight loss

  • progress louise has seen as a result of advocacy

  • louise’s answer to the million dollar question

  • exciting news from Zoë!

We’re joined by the hilarious clinical psychologist and author Louise Adams, who is fired up about changing how society views health, diets, weight loss, and bodies. We discuss “childhood obesity” research, including Louise’s criticisms of an ongoing Australian weight loss trial. Louise also takes us point by point through the research used to justify a weight loss app for children and teens so that parents can evaluate for themselves its claims about diets.

Get our guide to body-positive parenting.

 

Louise Adams is a clinical psychologist, the founder of Treat Yourself Well Sydney and the creator of UNTRAPPED. She has written two books, Mindful Moments and The Non-Diet Approach Handbook for Psychologist and Counsellors (with Fiona Willer, APD). She has been practicing in this field for more than 20 years. Louise is Vice President of Health At Every Size Australia, and is also a Member of the Australian Psychological Society (APS), and a member of the Clinical College of the APS.

louise has a special interest in problematic eating, body image, and weight struggles. Louise fights to educate people about the cruel trap of dieting, which only sets us up to fail. She uses an evidence-based anti-dieting approach to empower people to achieve permanent lifestyle change. Louise is wholly committed to the Heath At Every Size® movement, and to spreading the word about shifting our attitudes about weight and health. Louise is determined to make a difference in changing society’s perceptions about health, diets, weight loss, and bodies. Louise believes that people can approach health and happiness without attaching it to weight changes. She is for body diversity and against fat prejudice.

As well as her work with individual clients at her private practice, Louise conducts workshops and conferences for the general public and health professionals interested in changing their approach to weight issues. Louise also speaks with the media, and had appeared numerous times in magazines, newspapers, radio, and on television to spread her message. She blogs, she tweets, and she never shuts up about these issues!

Connect with Louise on her website, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Resources mentioned:

Jordan Best