At a time when they should feel secure in their bodys growth, too many children today learn to feel anxious about weight and shape and to make choices that contribute to the very problems they hope to avoid. The compelling wish to be unrealistically slim provides the seeds for a host of body image, eating, fitness, and weight problems that are extremely difficult to reverse once established. Paradoxically, as the drive to be thin and diet mentality have spread around the world, so has a coinciding increase in fatness. Yet directives continue for weight loss solutions that ignore the big picture: The thinner we try to be, the fatter we become. Negative body image, eating, fitness and weight problems are extremely difficult to reverse once established, and diminish self-esteem, attention, energy and health. While much remains to be learned, enough is now known about the toxic messages that promote body image and weight concerns to prevent these problems before they start.Since its original publication in 1998, outcome studies using Healthy Body Image: Teaching Kids to Eat and Love Their Bodies Too! (HBI) have been very encouraging. These lessons were among the first of their kind to demonstrate significant, measurable improvement in weight related attitudes among pubescent children. HBI is recommended by the U.S. Department of Health, Office of Women's Health in its BodyWise information packet for educators and is in use in hundreds of schools across the country.Those who have enjoyed teaching the original HBI will find these newly revised lessons to be familiar but improved by recommendations of educators and updated empirical data. In addition to concerns about the drive to be thin and diet mentality, poor fitness habits, excessive low-nutrient/high-calorie eating, and unhealthy weight gain are specifically addressed. As before, eleven, cross curricular, carefully planned lessons based on age-appropriate prevention principles recognized by experts in the field teach pre-pubescent children to:*Develop an identity based on inner strengths, not on appearance*Gain historical perspective on current unhealthy body image attitudes*Understand normal weight gain during puberty*Respect genetic diversity of body size and shape*Become aware of the dangers of dieting*Develop incentives for healthy eating and active lifestyles*Think critically about media messages*Resist unhealthy cultural pressures regarding weight and dieting.