One major reason for weight gain in America is dieting. This rise in their weight is often irreversible. For children the consequences of dieting may be even more disastrous. While there is no health risk in being the weight you were born to be, whether that is fat or thin, there is always a cost to manipulating the body's natural balance. Other dangers of obsessive concern with weight and dieting in children are the way they can lead to eating disorders, malnutrition and drug abuse.
Studies now show that most eating disorders begin with a diet.
That the deprivation sets into motion dangerous physical and psychological forces that can lead to anorexia, bulimia and compulsive eating. You cannot tell if a person has an eating disorder by looking at them, and many anorexics and bulimics become quite good at hiding their self-destructive behavior. The eventual results of this devastating disease can be death, and thousands die of eating disorders every year. Malnutrition in children not attributable to poverty conditions has grown in American since the mid-eighties. This malnutrition is caused in children because they do not eat enough of the food fat that they need for growth.