One of the most difficult jobs that a parent can experience is the important task of raising a healthy, confident, and goal oriented teenager into early adulthood. However, all to often our young children run into serious problems along the way through being a teenager. One such problem that may stay below the parent’s “radar” are eating disorders.

Are you worried that your teenage son or teenage daughter may have some type of eating disorder that they are trying to keep from you and the rest of the family? This type of disorder can be quite common during the teen years, especially with teenage girls. Although we do see teenage boys go through some eating problems as well.

With so much emphasis on looks and popularity today and mixed with the already insecure feeling that teenagers have as their bodies are changing, developing an eating disorder may be an underlying problem in your teen’s life. It is important to understand and educate yourself on the two major types of eating disorders that many of our youths may be going through.

If you suspect that your teenage son or daughter has any type of problem at all, first talk to your doctor. Be hesitant about trying to correct the problem by yourself at first.

Eating disorders always stem from another underlying problem and so by focusing on food as the issue, you will more than likely make things worse for your teen instead of helping him or her. In fact, studies have shown that early discovery and treatment of eating disorders will provide the best chance of recovery.

What eating disorders should you be concerned about? The first is anorexia nervosa. With this disorder, your teen may experience excessive weight loss due to self-starvation. As ironic as it seems, most teenagers prone to this type of eating disorder are typically involved in sports such as dance or gymnastics, where their body size and weight play an important role in success.

The second eating disorder described here is called bulimia nervosa. This involves very frequent episodes of binge eating which is almost always followed by purging the food through self induced vomiting. It doesn’t sound pretty but if your teenager has this eating disorder then they are probably practicing this with most, if not all of their meals due to intense feelings of guilt and shame about food.

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Almost every female celebrity has had her name associated with a certain diet at one point or another. However no matter how much you trust and admire a celebrity they don’t always recommend good dietary advice.

Remember Oprah Winfrey pushing the Cabbage Soup Diet about a decade or so on her television. This diet alternated eating one certain food all day with drinking a high sodium broth made from cabbages, V8 juices and Lipton’s onion soup mix. One day you would eat nothing bananas, another day nothing but soup and another day nothing but meat. The problem with this diet is that it was basically a calorie deprivation diet that many people found hard to stick to. It was also a diet that was extremely high in sodium. Oprah later retracted her faith in this diet, but this is a good example of “When Good Celebrities Diet Wrong.”

Unfortunately, many celebrities do not really realize the impact that their blithe comments have on their faithful followers, especially when it comes to diets. Here are some examples of celebrity diets that may or may not work depending on the condition of your health, your budget and whether or not you have a private chef.

Drew Barrymore – Drew Barrymore advocates engaging in at least one fun but strenuous activity a day such as crazy golf, swimming or playing a team sport. This is combined with three meals a day, staying away from cola and eating sugar free Jell-O. She also stays away from eating meat as much as she can. This is a very sensible plan but it will not create a stick thin figure. Drew Barrymore is one of those curvy celebrities who is not caving in to Hollywood peer pressure to be less than curvaceous.

Heidi Klum – Supermodel Heidi Klum stunned the world by losing thirty pounds one month after giving birth to her baby. She did this by embarking on a calorie restricted diet that allowed her no more than 1700 calories a day which most doctors would consider to be too low for a nursing mom. However it might be just right for an average adult who is not nursing!

Gwyneth Paltrow- Actress Gwyneth Paltrow is a follower of the Zen Macrobiotic diet that bans dairy, caffeine, alcohol, meat, fish and eggs. Whatever you eat that is left over must be organic. This can be an expensive or inexpensive diet depending on whether or not you go for the organic option. Also most foods on this diet are served raw which means buying plenty of fresh produce, which can get expensive. It is very difficult to cook anything tasty on this kind of diet. As it is mostly vegetables, nuts and seeds it can lead to severe calorie restriction as well. Staying on this diet for more than a week is very challenging for most people who usually give into cravings. Furthermore the lack of proteins, vitamin B12 and fats in this diet can lead to mental and emotional disturbances.

Claudia Schiffer – Supermodel Claudia Shiffer sticks to eating three meals a day, but they must be totally organic. This is probably the best of the celebrity diets around as it is built on the common sense prescription of “three square meals a day.” However eating organic can double the expense of your grocery bill which is not economical for many.

Rene Zellweiger – Rene Zelleweiger keeps her figure by sticking to the Zone Diet. This diet which involves food combining is not that practical for ordering out in restaurants. Furthermore strategizing your meals takes a lot of planning, grocery shopping and making special meals. This is just not that practical for today’s busy women. There are many companies that specialize in delivering Zone prepared meals directly to your door in large urban centers and you can find this information in your local phone book or you can check on the internet.

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Celebrities are always under the scrutiny of the public eye and have to constantly watch their weight to continue holding her physical attractiveness and performance. The artists have their own secrets to diet and say they work very well.

Angelina Jolie eats a lot during the day but she does not eat that do gain weight. In addition to switching to soy milk their dinners usually consist of bass, beef and steamed vegetables.

Breakfast for the Rock and Roll legend Bryan Adams is mainly fruit. Generally does not eat anything extra until lunchtime. When he tries to eat snacks are usually sunflower seeds.

Julia Roberts diet consists mainly of salads, vegetables and grilled fish. She does not believe that one should be denied their favorite foods, so they consume small portions of these include, Haagen Dazs ice cream and pancakes. Read more »

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