Not thin enough, she felt, she turned to tobacco. A team from Harvard University's School of Public Health found that pre-teen girls who diet up to once a week are twice as likely to become smokers. Girls who diet more than once a week are four times as likely to smoke. It provides really good evidence that dieting is a predictor of smoking. Dieting and smoking are part of a constellation of behaviors that we need to pay attention to.
Experts agree that once a young person starts smoking, it's almost impossible to stop.
Each year, about 20 percent of the 50 million smokers in the US try to quit. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends adults begin talking to kids about tobacco advertising and peer pressure as early as age 5, in an effort to prevent tobacco addiction. Emery, who teaches and develops programs at UC San Diego , contends tobacco advertising glamorizes women and plays on the impression or belief among children and adults that smoking is related with lower body weight. Talk to kids about their eating behaviors and healthy eating and having a healthy perspective on body image and self image. It's not worth it.