Eating Disorders Blog

According to a March 29 article by Kathy Chu of USA Today, Asian women are coming under intense pressure to remain thin, which has led to an increasing prevalence of extreme dieting in many Asian nations:

In most developed parts of the world, women feel pressure to be thin. But such pressure is especially intense in Asia  in places like Hong Kong, Seoul and Tokyo  where scores of skinny women seem always to be looking for ways to get even skinnier.

Experts say dieting in Asia tends to be more extreme than in the West because of cultural perceptions of beauty.

"The magic number is to be below 100 pounds, no matter your height or your weight," says Philippa Yu, a clinical psychologist at the Hong Kong Eating Disorders Association.

In Asia, women want to stay skinny without exercising because muscles aren't considered a feminine feature, says Sing Lee, director of the Hong Kong Eating Disorders Center at Chinese University.

Extreme diets and other types of rapid or drastic weight loss measures are far from healthy behaviors, and have been associated with a wide range of physical and emotional problems.

Labels: extreme diets, pressures, body image

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A recent poll of teenage girls shows that nine out of 10 feel pressured to be skinny by the fashion and media industries, and that an unattainable image of female beauty is perpetuated by these industries.

The poll, which included responses from 1,000 teenage girls between the ages of 13 and 17, was conducted for Girl Scouts USA by the youth research firm TRU. More than 75 percent of respondents said that fashion is "really important" to them.

Kimberlee Salmond, a senior researcher at the Girl Scout Research Institute, commented on the poll's findings: "The fashion industry remains a powerful influence on girls and the way they view themselves and their bodies. Teenage girls take cues about how they should look from models they see in fashion magazines and on TV and it is something that they struggle to reconcile with when they look at themselves in the mirror."

More than 80 percent of respondents said that they would rather see natural photos of models rather than digitally altered or enhanced photos. In addition, more than 75 percent of girls said they would be more likely to buy clothes that they see worn by real-size models than clothes that they see on ultra-thin models.

A significant percentage of respondents also reported experiencing or witnessing disordered eating behaviors. One in three respondents reported refusing to eat in an effort to lose weight; about half said they knew someone their age who has vomited after eating to lose weight; and more than one-third said they know someone who has been diagnosed with an eating disorder.
Aside from celebrities and models, respondents reported that peers, friends and parents are the top influences with regard to body image.

(Source: www.reuters.com)

Labels: eating disorder, body image, media, fashion, teen

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Recently, a member of the French Parliament drafted a new law which would require digitally altered photographs used in advertising to be labeled. The law is designed to highlight what some call the "fakery" involved in creating advertising images, and to help combat unattainable and unhealthy ideals regarding the human body.

The Parliament member, Valerie Boyer, is a 47-year-old mother of two who became interested in the idea of labeling altered photographs because of her relationship with her children. Ms. Boyer sees the portrayal of the human body in media and advertising as a serious subject, and one that has a far-reaching impact on society.

Ms. Boyer commented: "I got interested in the subject of the body because it's really a mother's reflection. It's the closeness I have to adolescents that drove me to become interested in these subjects.

"If someone wants to make life a success, wants to feel good in their skin, wants to be part of society, one has to be thin or skinny, and then it's not enough -- one will have his body transformed with software that alters the image, so we enter a standardized and brainwashed world, and those who aren't part of it are excluded from society."

(Source: www.nytimes.com)

Labels: body image, media, advertisements

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World famous fashion designer Ralph Lauren apologized this week for an ad which featured a Photoshop-altered image of a grotesquely thin woman. The model, Filippa Hamilton, actually weighs 120 pounds and stands 5 feet 10 inches tall, approximately a size 4.

The ad featured a photo of her modified so that her hip bones appear narrower than her head and her waist seems cartoonishly small. In addition, her legs appear so thin as to belong to a science classroom skeleton rather than a living human being.

Filippa Hamilton was also recently fired by Ralph Lauren. Although the company denies it, Ms. Hamilton asserts that she was fired because the fashion designer thought her body was too bulky to fit in sample sizes.

Ralph Lauren has a history of portraying extreme thinness (the photo of Filippa Hamilton is not the first bizarrely modified picture to find its way into the designer's fashion spreads). The National Organization for Women is demanding further apology from the designer, and was planning to hold its fourth annual "Love Your Body" celebration on Oct. 21, 2009.

(Source: www.latimes.com)

Labels: body image, media, model

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Children as young as 10 years old are concerned with what constitutes the ideal body, according to a recent study that took place in Nova Scotia, Canada.

The study analyzed survey responses from more than 4,000 school-aged children. It determined that young girls' happiness was linked directly to how thin they were, while boys were happiest when they were neither too thin nor too heavy.

• About 7 percent of girls reported that they didn't like the way they looked.
• The percentage of girls who were unhappy with their looks increased proportionately as respondents' body mass index measurements increased. O
• f girls with normal body weight, 5.7 percent didn't like the way they looked, versus 10.4 percent of overweight girls and 13.1 percent of obese girls.
• Experts estimate that approximately 25 percent of Canadian children are now overweight or obese.

(Source: network.nationalpost.com)

Labels: body image, kids

Posted By: Eating Disorders Blog 1 Comment

Many people mistakenly believe that eating disorders were believed affect only Caucasian women. Little research was done on men or women of various races and ethnic backgrounds. Today, though, research results document the degree to which eating disorders and body image concerns impact men and women across racial and ethnic lines.

For example, examiner.com reports the following about bulimia among African American adults:

Research has been conducted on African Americans that showed that they are more prone to the eating disorder bulimia nervosa. Bulimia is not easily detectable at a glance because those who are bulimic are able to maintain their weight, but they do not maintain their food.

Additional studies are also finding an increasing number of men being affected by eating disorders, often in conjunction with obsessive levels of exercise.

To summarize: Regardless of a person's gender, racial background or ethnic history, eating disorders remain a very real (and very dangerous) threat.

 

Labels: body image, bulimia, epidemic

Posted By: Stefanie Hamilton 1 Comment

Women who tell researchers that they have no weight problems and believe they do not struggle with poor body image actually do have issues with self-image, according to a new study from Brigham Young University.

• Dr. Mark Allen, Dr. Diane Spangler and their colleagues compared brain activity of women with eating disorders with a control group of women who said they had no such problems.
• The research team was surprised to see that the control group's brains activated when shown pictures of overweight women.

"When we scanned the women, they actually show that they were very concerned about being overweight or seeing overweight images, where the men were not at all," said Dr. Spangler. "There is so much bombardment of this 'thin ideal' and what your weight should be that it is showing up in the brains of women, even women don't feel like this is a concern for them."

Dr. Allen said that the findings suggest "there is a disconnection between a conscious evaluation of how your body image is and what is really going on, deep down inside, psychologically, and now we can see neurologically."

The study appears in the journal Personality and Individual Differences.
 

Labels: self-esteem, body image, women

Posted By: Jane St. Clair 1 Comment

Just controlling your eating is not enough to cure yourself of body image problems and may do more harm than good, according to therapist and writer Laura Schultz.

Schultz was commenting on a best-selling book, "It's Not What You're Eating, It's What's Eating You," by Dr. Janet Greeson. This title may be the key to helping people with eating disorders, Schultz said.

"As a psychotherapist, I've done enough research to know that diets do not work in the long run itself and starvation is dangerous to one's health," Schultz said. "... If it is truly 'what's eating you versus what you're eating,' it requires a much more focused approach to examine the psychological and physical reasons to analyze and solve the issue. It is helpful to learn to accept one's body weight where it is at the moment, rather than to beat oneself up, which only leads to more self-destructive patterns."

Dr. Greeson points out that at the root of disordered eating patterns are physical, emotional and spiritual problems that need to be addressed in a comprehensive setting.

Over ten million American women have eating disorders, and half of American women tell researchers that they are unhappy with their physical appearances.
 

Labels: body image

Posted By: Jane St. Clair 0 Comments

Young women who watched a television show featuring plastic surgery told researchers that the procedures were "inspirational," and a new way for "an unhappy girl to achieve her dreams."

• Professors Patrick and Charlotte Markey, a husband-wife team, asked 200 college students to watch either a home improvement show or one featuring plastic surgeries.
• Participants who watched the medical shows were more likely to say they had a positive view of such surgeries afterwards.
• Females were more likely to respond positively to the shows than males.

"When we think of cosmetic surgery, we don’t think of it as a lifetime issue. There is lots of pressure to look a certain way and I don’t blame them for succumbing; we’re all guilty of feeling vulnerable," said Dr. Charlotte Markey, associate professor of psychology at Rutgers University. "What troubles me is that there’s no conclusive data that cosmetic surgery even makes people happier, what has been documented is that it makes repeat customers."

This study appears in the journal

Body Image

.

 

Labels: body image, surgery, tv

Posted By: CRC Health 1 Comment

When most people hear the phrase “silent killer,” they think of hypertension or heart disease. But eating disorders can be silent killers, too, especially in teens who are determined to hide it.

“A recent study published by the University of Illinois suggests that normal and underweight teenage girls who believe that they are overweight are at a significantly higher risk of developing unhealthy weight loss behaviors.” [Source: Insiders Health]

This misperception is called “body distortion” and it’s more prevalent than many adults realize. A girl who’s convinced that she’s “fat” even though she’s not will continue trying to lose weight, even when she’s too thin. And, to the best of her ability, she’s going to hide her weight loss from her parents and other loved ones, so she can keep losing.
 

Labels: body image, teen, girls, symptoms

Posted By: Stefanie Hamilton 1 Comment

If children get teased about their weight at school, they are more likely develop negative feelings about their bodies. This negative body image can, in turn, lead to disordered eating and related mental health issues, according to a new study from the University of Nebraska in Lincoln.

• Dr. Timothy Nelson studied hundreds of children whose average age was 11 years old
• Dr. Nelson compared his subjects' actual heights and weights with their perceptions of their bodies.
• If children were teased and criticized by peers, they were more likely to be less satisfied with the size of their bodies and to judge their physical selves more harshly.

"Weight-related criticism is one of the last socially acceptable forms of criticism," Dr. Nelson said. "There's often a sense that overweight people 'deserve' it or if they are prodded about their weight, they'll do something about it. Our research suggests that this kind of criticism tends to increase the victim's dissatisfaction, which has shown to be a factor in poorer outcomes with pediatric weight management programs. It becomes something of a vicious cycle."

This study appears in the Journal of Pediatric Psychology.
 

Labels: body image, emotions, schools

Posted By: Jane St. Clair 0 Comments

As the oldest daughter of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife Maria Shriver, you’d think Katherine Schwarzenegger would have a pretty healthy self-esteem. While that’s true of her now, when she was younger, she struggled with all-too-familiar body image issues.

“’Fourth grade was the first time I really became aware of my body, and really started to compare it to other girls’ bodies, and I think that is what really freaked me out,’ Schwarzenegger says. ‘I didn’t know how to deal with that, and I guess that’s why I kind of broke down.’” - Source: The Orange County Register

After Katherine worked through her struggles, she decided to write about them. Her book, Rock What You’ve Got: Secrets to Loving Your Inner and Outer Beauty, has just been published and she’s started a book tour. Her goal is to let girls know they’re not alone in struggling to adjust as their bodies develop.
 

Labels: self-esteem, body image

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