Children's eating and weight concepts

The conflicting cultures of western ideals of slimness and the fast food culture, create ever-increasing contradictory pressures on today s children. This book identifies those contradictory pressures on today's children. It links between the cultural communication practices, human interactions and social dynamics involved in health communications and the expression of individual differences in children s responses to those pressures about their eating, weight and self concepts. The communications in this book, seek to explore young people s own motivations and special spheres of relevance affecting their eating choices or body image ideals by legitimising the 'special slang or figures of speech' (Mariampolski, 1989), lingual metaphors, personal experiences, stereotypes or nonverbal cues used by the children. It may help those who wish to investigate children's or other identity groups own idioms and narratives related to their health beliefs. It may also be useful for those health psychologists, health professionals, therapists or others who wish to capture neglected themes or concerns raised during diverse health communications or debates.