Dr Leora Pinhas, head of the eating disorder clinic at SickKids Hospital in Toronto is seeing more very young girls in her program. Even girls as young as five – and it shoots up for girls aged 11-15 (386 in 2009) and also ages 16-20 (572 in 2009). She points to ballet, figure skating and gymnastics as well at obesity prevention programs.
Girls get the constant message to eat no fats. I would add that that the media now targets younger girls and that girl-based sports are just the tip of a culture that forces girls to be super slim to be appealing (to males). Sadly. My upcoming book: Raising Strong Girls explains this in more detail.