Thinheritance

The notion that eating habits and body image might be passed down from parent to child.

Teenage girls whose mothers diet are nearly twice as likely to have an eating disorder, according to a recent British survey reported by the P.A.:

Many girls say their mother has the biggest influence on their own self-image and they feel damaged by the effects of their mum’s dieting and views on food.

The survey of more than 500 12–18-year-olds was undertaken by a British teen magazine, Sugar:

Its editor Annabel Brog said girls were heavily influenced by their family’s views on diet and food – so-called “thinheritance.”

She said: “Every single issue of Sugar magazine features fashion modelled by ‘regular’ girls, with different body sizes and shapes, to prove all bodies are gorgeous when they’re well fed and exercised.

“But it stands to reason that a girl’s ‘thinheritance’ – the attitude to food and body-shape she is exposed to day-after-day in her home – is going to be more powerful than anything we can print in a magazine.”