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Rebecca Adlington OBE chats about body image

25th September 2019
Posted by Aston Avery

A rise in misguided or ill-informed diet trends is encouraging young people to remove crucial food groups from their diet and skip meals believing it will help improve their appearance. New research of 1,000 16-25-year-olds and found that young women are more likely to change their food habits with over half (53%) admitting they have removed at least one food group from their diet compared to just over a third (37%) of males.

The most common age to start changing eating habits is between the ages of 14-16, with a third of females (33%) stating this is when they first cut a food group from their diet. Worryingly, nearly one in ten (10%) were aged 10 or younger. Of those who removed a food group, over a quarter (26%) admitted that they were influenced in doing so by those around them, and over a third (36%) stated they look to fashion and lifestyle influencers and celebrities on social media as their source for information on diets and food.

The research by Arla found dairy to be among the top ranked food groups most likely to be cut by young females, with one-fifth (21%) disclosing they had gone dairy-free. Despite dairy being beneficial as part of a healthy balanced diet, young adults have a number of misconceptions about the category which could be negatively impacting their diets with nearly half (44%) of young females surveyed believing that dairy is unhealthy or has a negative impact on their body image.

Aston spoke to Rebecca Adlington OBE, double olmypic gold medalist (400m & 800m freesytle swimming) to discuss the research and Rebecca also offered advice on how not to cut out key food groups as well.

Image: Flickr