By Karen Reed-Matthee

Most parents today regard drugs, alcohol and unprotected sex as major menaces to the health and safety of their adolescents. But few would consider a daughter's desire to go on a diet as a potential jumping off point into the downward spiral of disordered eating - even starvation. But parents should treat a child's decision to diet as seriously as if she - and sometimes he - indicates a willingness to experiment with drugs or take steroids to boost athletic performance, says Dr. Craig Johnson, director of the nationally recognized eating disorders program at Laureate Psychiatric Hospital and Clinic in Tulsa, Oka. "Be very careful about kids going on a diet at all," Johnson warns. "Dieting alters neurochemistry, sometimes in ways that may provoke anorexia or bulimia."

There are many reasons - some just recently discovered - for Johnson and other medical professionals across the country to sound the alarm around the eating disorders of anorexia nervosa, bulimia and binge eating.