by Zoe Gough BBC News Online

Early dietary advice could ease problems before they begin

At the same time dangerous addictions related to dieting are also believed to be rising among youngsters.

Extreme behaviour such as starvation is often seen as a way of taking control in a pressurized society say experts.

So could campaigns which push weight awareness also increase children's risk of developing eating disorders?

Dr Nick Cooling, a consultant psychologist at the Priory Hospital Roehampton, in London, says despite this danger the government has acted responsibly by promoting healthy exercise.

But he said social pressures on young people's mental health, especially from advertising and "unrealistic" body images, also needed to be tackled.

He said he feared such pressures could soon see anorexia reach epidemic proportions in young people.

"The frequency of anorexia among young men is certainly increasing and a possible epidemic in young people is something we need to be vigilant about," he said.

'More realistic icons'

"Youngsters are under a lot of pressure with respect to potentially addictive behaviours - shopping, exercising, using the internet - they are all about being in control."

He said society's portrayal of the human body needed to be changed to halt such trends in youngsters.

"Advertising should use more realistic icons to sell products, promote people with normal body shapes," he said.

Steve Bloomfield, spokesman for the Eating Disorders Association (EDA), believes better awareness of diet and exercise in pupils' education could help to stop children becoming depressed about their weight in the first place.

"The complication comes if you get a youngster at school who, because of poor diet, gets obese and gets bullied, that could be the point when they diet excessively and that leads to an eating disorder," he said.

"If they had had a bit of dietary advice they may not be obese in first place."

But he added: "The dangers are that dieting advice does need to centre around cardio vascular health and not say that all fat is bad.

"They have to know how to express how they feel, not just bottle it up, and to be able to analyse what the media is saying Steve Bloomfield, EDA

"We all need fat in our lives and some children, when their thinking isn't very rounded, eschew all types of fat that they need in their diet."

He agreed with Dr Cooling that advertising often contributed to the anxieties which could turn youngsters to eating disorders.

"We need to tackle it by giving young people at school the opportunity for emotional literacy," he said.

"They have to know how to express how they feel, not just bottle it up, and to be able to analyse what the media is saying.

"These things do need to be addressed, young people come under a huge range of influences when they haven't had the breadth of experience to know what's real and what's presented as real."

He said bulimia was a major concern for his organisation but said as it rarely occurred in the under 15s he hoped something could be done.

"I hope it does not get worse, good education will help to stem that flow," he said.