Among Canadian Women & Men

English-speaking in the household and immigrant heritage were investigated as predictors of eating disorder symptomatology. Subsamples of immigrants (n = 72) and native-born Canadians (n = 314) were analyzed. Each subsample had approximately equal numbers of men and women. Respondents in English-speaking households reported a higher tendency to think about dieting than respondents in non-English-speaking households. Immigrant men reported a higher tendency to think about dieting and a higher tendency to feel satisfied with the shape of their body than native-born Canadian men. Immigrant women, however, showed the opposite trend. They reported thinking about dieting to a lesser degree than native-born Canadian women. In contrast to immigrant men, immigrant women appear to be 'insulated ' from Western cultural body ideals and standards. This study increases our understanding of factors that might affect the health of Canadian women and men, particularly immigrants, raises important implications for health promotion research, practice and policy. Western cultural body ideals and standards emphasize the desirability of beauty and thinness – ideals accepted by most women but realistically impossible to achieve. Even though women today are becoming heavier (Spitzer, Henderson & Zivian, 1999), many are determined to attain a thin and youthful appearance at a cost to their physical and psychological health (Wolf, 1991). Feminist socio-cultura