Children 'should be taught self-esteem'

Youngsters need to learn emotional resilience and tactics for dealing with images of the “perfect body” in the media, said Beat, which describes itself as the leading UK charity for people with eating disorders.

It wants lessons on the issue to form part of personal, social and health education in schools.

The call is one of several in a manifesto published today urging the next government to tackle eating disorders.

An audit of how many people have actually been diagnosed with an eating disorder – data that is currently unavailable – should be carried out, the manifesto says.

GPs should receive regular updates on the latest research and treatment, while specialist services should be available to all who need them.

Beat operations director Emma Healey said: “We can’t continue to wrap our children in candyfloss.

“Children pick many of our negative messages about size and body shape from our conversations, from our magazines, from our TV shows.

“Beat is calling for a curriculum that promotes positive self-esteem in young children and that helps children understand that we come in all shapes and sizes and success is not about how we look but who and what we do.

“If we can’t promote positive self-esteem for children in primary school then how can we expect to create a generation of healthy and resilient young people?”

The manifesto came as the charity released a poll which found eight out of 10 people with an eating disorder have suffered discrimination or stigma.

This included bullying at school and workplace, or employment prospects being damaged after disclosure of an eating disorder. Pollsters questioned 1,000 people.