Women who tell researchers that they have no weight problems and believe they do not struggle with poor body image actually do have issues with self-image, according to a new study from Brigham Young University.

• Dr. Mark Allen, Dr. Diane Spangler and their colleagues compared brain activity of women with eating disorders with a control group of women who said they had no such problems.
• The research team was surprised to see that the control group's brains activated when shown pictures of overweight women.

"When we scanned the women, they actually show that they were very concerned about being overweight or seeing overweight images, where the men were not at all," said Dr. Spangler. "There is so much bombardment of this 'thin ideal' and what your weight should be that it is showing up in the brains of women, even women don't feel like this is a concern for them."

Dr. Allen said that the findings suggest "there is a disconnection between a conscious evaluation of how your body image is and what is really going on, deep down inside, psychologically, and now we can see neurologically."

The study appears in the journal Personality and Individual Differences.
 

Labels: self-esteem, body image, women

Posted By: Jane St. Clair