Perspectivas en Nutrición Humana 109

Objective: to explore the relationship between eating patterns and body image perception in two different cultural adolescent groups, one from Colombia and the other one from Dutch. Methods: this is a qualitative study, participants were teenager women recruited, eight from Medellin nine from Amsterdam; the data was collected in both groups, a survey was applied first to focal groups and then to individuals willing to talk about their eating patterns and other practices related to their body image perception. Results: Netherlands and Colombia could be considered Western countries but there are some differences, in the way that adolescent girls perceive the body image and how they have to deal with the social pressure on them to get the ideal body. The body ideal image promoted by publicity media in both countries is almost the same; but in Colombia, adolescents use their bodies as a manner to get power and control and their families and peers put more pressure on them than in the Netherlands. Conclusions: teenagers perceive the ideal body as a symbol to have power and control and to get identity. Studying the same issue in two different cultures, allow to social health programs get the real idea about adolescent behaviors in order to make changes accord to the cultural settings. Key words: body image, food habits, cross-cultural comparison, mass media, power (psychology), in-terpersonal relations, adolescent