Social Influence on Fad Diet Use: A Systematic Literature Review

Background: A fad diet is a broad term used to describe dieting methods that recommend altering the intake of macronutrients to specific proportions or instruct people to intake or avoid particular foods, often with the goal of rapid weight loss. Previous literature reviews report social influence impacts general diet behaviour, but have yet to examine fad diets, specifically. Therefore, the purpose of this systematic review was to synthesize literature related to social influence on an individual's fad diet use and understand the sociocultural factors related to diet use. Methods: Using PRISMA guidelines, Medline, PsycInfo, Embase, CINAHL, and CENTRAL databases were searched to identify articles investigating the impact of social on fad diet use. Covidence was used to manage the review process and Garrard's Matrix Method was used to extract data from reviewed articles (n = 13). Results: A majority of reviewed studies examined interpersonal influence (62%) and reported social influence impacting a variety of fad diet behaviours (92%). Interpersonal and media influence were highlighted as motivating factors for adopting unhealthy dieting methods (54%), and studies showed interpersonal support impacted adoption and maintenance of fad diet use (23%). Also, social norms were reported to influence unhealthy weight control behaviours (15%). Discussion: This review revealed social influence is associated with the adoption, adherence, and termination of fad diets. The prevalence of fad diets in society and the lack of research on this topic warrants further examination of factors related to fad diets use and the spread among interpersonal networks.

Physical Illiteracy and Obesity Barrier: How Physical Education Can Overpass Potential Adverse Effects? A Narrative Review

Environments lacking in stimuli together with ineffective physical education programs can lead to motor illiteracy, causing several adverse effects that could be worsened by unhealthy weight conditions (e.g., obesity). Obesity can be seen as an actual barrier for children and adolescents, especially for affective, behavioral, physical, and cognitive domains. In this context, condensing what the literature proposes could be useful in order to improve the understanding of the best intervention strategies (i.e., proper physical education programs) to manage the adverse effects of motor illiteracy in relation to the obesity barrier. The purpose of this narrative review is to improve the understanding on how physical education programs can counteract the adverse effects of physical illiteracy and obesity barrier across childhood and adolescence. Proper physical education programs should develop motor competence by fostering an individual’s awareness, self-perception, autonomous motivation, and muscular fitness on a realistic scenario (functional task difficulty related to his/her possibilities) in the attempt to counteract the adverse effects of the obesity barrier. Such programs should be designed without overlooking a proper multi teaching style approach.

Understanding the antecedents of healthy and unhealthy weight-control behaviours: Grit, motivation, and self-control

Objective: In order to understand the psychological antecedents or personal factors that lead to weight control behaviours that can help to develop more effective prevention strategies. Design: The present correlational study has a non-experimental, quantitative, cross-sectional design. A model was tested considering types of motivation (autonomous motivation, controlled motivation, and amotivation) as mediators in the relationship between the Grit personality and healthy and unhealthy weight control behaviours, with self-control as a moderator in the aforementioned indirect effects. Setting: Monterrey (Nuevo León, México) Participants: A representative sample of 1219 adults (men = 599; women = 620) aged 18 to 65 years (M = 29.37, SD = 11.83). Results: Findings supported the mediator role of the types of motivation. Specifically, Grit showed a positive indirect effect on healthy weight control behaviours through autonomous motivation. Conversely, Grit showed a negative indirect effect on unhealthy weight control behaviours through autonomous motivation. Furthermore, findings supported the moderator role of self-control in the relationship between amotivation and healthy and unhealthy weight control behaviours. Conclusions: This study provides evidence for the key role of Grit in the adoption of healthy or unhealthy control behaviours, as well as the role of autonomous motivation in the development of healthy behaviours.

The effects of smoking, regular drinking, and unhealthy weight on health care utilization in China

Background Preventive risk factors such as smoking, drinking, and unhealthy weight have contributed to the accelerated rise in noncommunicable chronic diseases, which are dominant drivers of health care utilization and spending in China. However, few studies have been conducted using a large longitudinal dataset to explore the impact of such preventive risk factors on health care utilization. Therefore, this study aimed to ascertain the effects of smoking, regular drinking, and unhealthy weight on health care utilization in China. Methods This research was a longitudinal study using data from five waves of the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) conducted between 2010 and 2018, and the final sample consisted of 63,260 observations (12,652 participants) across all five waves of data collection. Health care utilization was measured from two perspectives: outpatient utilization and inpatient utilization. Smoking status was categorized as never smoker, former smoker, or current smoker. Unhealthy weight was classified based on the participants’ body mass index. A fixed effects logistic regression model was used for the analysis. Results The results of fixed effects logistic regression showed that current and former smokers were approximately 1.9 times and 2.0 times more likely to use outpatient care than those who never smoked, respectively (odds ratio (OR) = 1.88, p < 0.05; OR = 2.03, p < 0.05). Obese people were approximately 1.3 times more likely to use outpatient care than healthy weight people (OR = 1.26, p < 0.05). Moreover, the results show that compared to those who never smoked, for current and former smokers, the odds of being hospitalized increased by 42.2 and 198.2%, respectively (OR = 1.42; p < 0.1, OR = 2.98; p < 0.05). Compared to healthy weight people, overweight and obese people were also more likely to be hospitalized (OR = 1.11; p < 0.1, OR = 1.18; p < 0.1, respectively). Conclusion Among Chinese adults, current and former smokers were more likely to use outpatient and inpatient care than those who had never smoked. Moreover, compared to healthy weight people, obese people were more likely to use outpatient and inpatient care, and overweight people were more likely to use inpatient care. These results may have important implications that support the government in making health care resource allocation decisions.

LGB prevalence in schools is associated with unhealthy weight-control behaviors in lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth: a multilevel analysis

Background Previous studies have found that a school climate of more heteronormativity is associated with adverse effects on the mental health of LGB students. Accordingly, our aim was to assess the association between lower LGB prevalence in schools and unhealthy weight-control behaviors among LGB youth. Methods A cross-sectional, multilevel study based in public high schools in the city of Olinda, Northeast Brazil. A multilevel logistic regression was performed, including 2500 adolescents enrolled in 27 schools. The contextual variable was the prevalence of LGB youth in each school (as a proxy for heteronormativity in schools), while the outcome was unhealthy weight-control behaviors (fasting, purging, and taking diet pills). We controlled for socioeconomic characteristics (age, sex, receiving a family allowance), obesity, and self-reported happiness. Results Lower LGB prevalence in schools was associated with higher odds of engaging in unhealthy weight-control behaviors (OR: 1.5, 95%CI: 1.0, 2.2) among all youth, regardless of sexual orientation. No cross-level interactions between school context and individual characteristics were statistically significant. Conclusion Lower LGB prevalence in schools was associated with a higher risk of unhealthy weight-control behaviors in youth regardless of sexual orientation, which may reflect either the contextual influence of school climate, or may be due to residual confounding.

Self-Compassion, Mindful Eating, Eating Attitudes and Wellbeing

Background: Mindful eating behaviour and self-compassion have been individually shown to contribute to healthy eating. Evidence suggests that they may interact and that interaction may increase our understanding of eating behaviour. Aims: The aim of the current study was to explore the relationship between mindful eating, self-compassion, healthy / unhealthy weight, eating disorder and wellbeing in a sample of university students Methods: An online survey using questionnaire data collection in a sample of 349 students (105 males and 244 females). Variables measured included body mass index (BMI), mindful eating, eating attitudes, self-compassion and mental wellbeing. Results: Regression and path analysis show mindful eating and self-compassion to individually and interaction predict eating attitudes and wellbeing. BMI was shown to have a curvilinear relationship with mindful eating, self-compassion and wellbeing with both the underweight and obese reporting lower self-compassion, less mindful eating, lower wellbeing and more likely to exhibit disordered eating. Conclusions: These results indicate that self-compassion and mindful eating behaviour might be usefully targeted in interventions to prevent both obesity and eating disorder.

Self-Perception and Self-Acceptance Are Related to Unhealthy Weight Control Behaviors in Catalan Adolescents: A Cross-Sectional Study

Adolescence is associated with a higher vulnerability that may result in a high dissatisfaction, the practice of unhealthy weight-control behaviors (UWCB) and, eventually, the onset of body image-related mental disorders. These factors are strongly associated with the social context, so it is important to characterize them in local or regional studies. To assess the relationship between body image and UWCB presence, a cross-sectional study was performed among 2496 schooled adolescents from Lleida (Spain) between 2017 and 2019. Their perceived and desired images were evaluated and compared with the real image in order to obtain the body distortion and the body dissatisfaction and relate them with UWCB. The studied individuals perceived themselves thinner than they actually were, with no differences between males and females. However, differences were found regarding body dissatisfaction, showing that females desired to be thinner, while males desired a more corpulent body image. Furthermore, one out of ten individuals reported UWCB, with higher prevalence among females. UWCB was associated with a desire to be thinner and with distorted body images. It is essential to work on self-perception and self-acceptance in early adolescence from an interdisciplinary perspective at educational, social and health levels to promote health in adolescence.