3 types of eating disorders: Anorexia is deliberate starvation, bulimia is self induced vomiting, and obesity is overactive eating.

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Eating Disorders

Eating disorders seem to have become, in a way an accepted thing to do. Many

people who have this perceived notion of themselves being overweight go to extreme

lengths to be skinny, hence what they think will make them beautiful. Most people that

are affected by eating disorders are young girls who fall into peer pressure, or dictate

what they see on television, like supermodels and actors: "We've also trivialized them:

made them into nothing more acceptable standards of behaviour. Everyone wants to be

thin and pretty, after all" (Helwig 324). It is helpful to know what eating disorders are,

how they start and eating disorders as a trend.

There are 3 different ways that people use to keep their weight down. Anorexia is

deliberate starvation, bulimia is self induced vomiting, and obesity is overactive eating.

People who suffer from anorexia suppress their hunger and refuse to eat, because of their

desire to be thin, to the point where they become emaciated.

People who suffer from

anorexia also change their psychological way of thinking, they consider themselves

overweight, even though they might be skinny to the point that they are dangerously

underweight. Bulimia or binge eating is the consumption of large quantities of food over

a short period of time and often self induce vomiting, and abuse laxatives or diuretics

between binges in an attempt to keep their weight down. The mental process of bulimics

is different then anorexics. People who suffer from bulimia, recognize that they have a

problem, and are often very secretive about it. Obesity can be defined as excessive build

up of body fat, and people who eat erratically, combined with little to no body movement,

like limited exercise.

There are many ways in which eating disorders start, the first is biologically and

through learned behaviours, such as the good intention of family members to give

excessive amounts of food to children in order to grow.

In our culture, which has an abudance of food, children learn to increase

progressively the amount of food they eat, and often increase the quantity of

energy they ingest beyond that needed for growth, body functions, and the

demands for exercise. (Abraham, Jones 23)

However there comes the time when the child does not need as high of a nutriential

intake, and if the child is eating at the same rate, then there is a high likelyhood that

obesity will follow. The obesity then leads to the child's recongnition of her body

weight, which leads to weight control by using diets or other ways to keep her weight

down. The second is psychological, which includes the emotional and mental thought

process to the start of eating disorders. People, especially women, who feel lonely and

depressed often fill the void in their lives by eating, and the more they eat, the more

fulfilled they feel : "As she becomes increasingly obese she develops a need to stay

obese, and avoid the resurgence of her feeling of inadequacy" (Abraham, Jones 26). The

last explananation as to why eating disorders occur, is the social reason. The social

explanation involves the media, and what people are told by others. Pressures by what is

seen on tv, like the skinny models, yet the message that eating is good.

Eating disorders have become a major trend, you see images of skinny models

and actresses, which gives the message that skinny is sexy and normal.

Now it could be condoned. Now it could, in fact, become the basis for an

industry; could be incorporated neatly into consumer society. According to Jane

Fonda the solution to bulimia is to remain equally unhealthy thin by buying the

20-minute workout and becoming an obssesive fitness follower (at least for those

who can afford it). The diet clinic industry, the Nutrisystem package, the aerobics

boom. (Helwig 327).

The people who are affected the most by what they see on television, are young

impressionble adolescents, who feel that they have flawed waist, hips, and other body

parts in comparison to those of models and actors. As years pass the standard for beauty

have been dropping and dropping, such as Pamela Anderson who is 5'7" and weights 120

pounds. In contrast, a generation before Marilyn Monroe set the beauty standard at 5'5"

and weighed 135 pounds.

People with anorexia don't see that they are starving themselves to death. In

contrast people who suffer from bulimia know they have a problem, can't stop

themselves from inducing vomiting. Finally obesity is when people overeat and don't

burn the excess energy. Eating disorders are a death sentence to not just women, but men

as well. People are influenced to start one by what they see on television, the internet, by

family and in the media.

Works Cited

Helwig, Maggie. "Hunger." Canadian Content. 5th Ed. Nell Waldman and Sarah Norton. Scarborough: Nelson, 2003. 323-328

Agras, W.Stewart. Eating Disorders: Management of Obesity, Bulimia, and Anorexia Nervosa. Great Britain: A. Wheaton & Co. Ltd., Exeter, 1987.

Abraham, Suzanne, and Derek Llewellyn-Jones. Eating Disorders The Facts. Great Britain: The Chaucer Press Ltd., 1984

Media and Eating Disorders. Rader Programs. Retrieved 16/November/2004 .