Diet as self-destruction

Even low level weight control linked to youth suicide

A couple of quotations:

One explanation of these results could have been that depression is the real cause of suicidal behaviour and that also weight control behaviour is an outcome of depression. But even after controlling for depression, a strong link between weight control and suicide behaviours remains.

Interestingly, the body mass index did not show any link to suicide. Therefore, only feeling fat but not being fat is linked to a suicide risk in young people. And it seems that many of those feeling fat are not really fat. This is a reason for concern about public weight loss messages.

The only skepticism I have is how much a different it makes.  If 1% of non-dieting youths have suicidal thoughs, and 2% of dieting youths have suicidal thoughts, then that is a significant doubling.  But it still means there is only one chance in fifty that any dieting youth you see has been thinking about suicide.  I would like to know more about the findings.

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