Assignment Two Final

Assignment Two Anjanette Ly3/16/14

Eating Disorders and the Implications that Arise

Anjanette Ly

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Spring 2014


Introduction/Background

It is not uncommon for girls in today’s generation to feel pressured to look a certain way. Typically being thinner looking is favored over being “fat”. What’s cool now? Oh, you know…You have to have that thigh gap, your thighs can’t touch. Not to mention, no jiggly cellulite or thunder thighs. And who could forget those flat, rock hard abs that every girl needs to have. No muffin top, please. Hey, prominent collar bones and a few ribs showing here and there isn’t too bad too right? No. What kind of rules are these? Who made these up and why do crazy rules like this constitute for what is pretty or accepted in today’s society? No wonder messed up thoughts like this have driven a hundreds of thousands of girls all over the United States and even other countries around the world to develop eating disorders.

I suppose it would be ideal for me to introduce where I fit into this situation right about now. I will first of all mention that I have always found the topic of eating disorders to be rather interesting. It seems a little bit fascinating to me for some reason, I don’t know why. For instance, growing up and learning about nutrition and other related subjects in health class in school has always grabbed my attention. Smoking, alcohol and substance abuse? – Boring! But when it came to topics such as nutrition and eating disorders and so on, I paid a bit more attention.

I guess this could be a touchy and personal subject to talk about for certain people. I can be open and frank and say that although I do find the subject of eating disorders in general very interesting to talk and learn about, I myself have personally never experienced any. However, I am sort of contemplating saying this next bit. Okay, I will admit that sometimes I feel like I have the mind of a person who has an eating disorder. I definitely do not have an eating disorder, this I am very certain of, but sometimes I can’t help but think like one. When I say I have “the mind of a person with an eating disorder” I mean I feel like I think similarly to someone who may experience eating disorders. For example, I feel a little guilty when I eat a lot of food, especially unhealthy and junk food, or I feel that I could always lose a few more pounds. At times I feel that it could be just dandy if my legs were thinner also. But let’s get this straight, I’m sure I’m not the only one who thinks like this. I’m sure there are a handful of people who would feel better if they could be smaller or bigger in certain areas of their body. This is just a side note. I am aware that I have somewhat disordered thoughts when it comes to this kind of subject, but I am working to improve that. But that’s enough about me. Eating disorders are very prevalent in today’s society, especially among the younger generation. It is a growing concern that is not really taken and seriously as it should be. I feel that many people are aware of what eating disorders are but are somewhat ignorant about the topic. This paper will explore the connection between physical fitness/exercise and eating disorders; more specifically, we will investigate the implications for physical and mental health.

Literature Review


Before I dive into discussing the sources I have gathered on the subject matter, I think it would be beneficial to draw attention to a few certain terms that would be helpful to understand before reading onward. First things first, what is an eating disorder? I would describe an eating disorder as a class of illnesses characterized by atypical eating habits such as cutting down on the amount of food one consumes, or almost completing eliminating food in order to lose or maintain a relatively low body weight. Eating disorders are more frequent among teenage girls, but could affect both males and females of any age. The consequences of eating disorders are quite serious and can be detrimental to one’s overall health. Two common eating disorders include anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. In anorexia, one drastically reduces food intake, practically engaging in self-starvation, driven by the desire to be thin. There are a number of other ridiculous things a person with anorexia might do. And bulimia is another kind of eating disorder in which a person may consume a large amount of food at a given time but later purge everything back up. Basically a person will not eat for a long period of time, but when he or she does, he or she will go straight to the restroom and throw up everything that was just eaten.

Dealing with Eating Disorders

It is not uncommon for kids to be concerned about their appearance. Many people can become self-conscious about how their body looks. This can lead a person to develop an eating disorder. There is an estimated 10 million Americans who suffer from an eating disorder. I will discuss two individuals who have dealt with the eating disorder, bulimia nervous in different ways. 13-year-old Johnathan Noyes has been dealing with bulimia for about 3 years and still combating it. He begins with the statement, “when you’re eating, you’re just like a machine, like you aren’t really thinking or feeling, you’re just doing it.” 2 It is strange because Johnathan is a boy and has an eating disorder. When it comes to having an eating disorder, it is commonly thought of for only females to have, but anybody of any age or any gender could develop an eating disorder. The vast majority of treatment programs that are available are geared toward females however. Johnathan dealt with many troubles as a result of bulimia but found comfort when he begin hanging out with Collin Schuster, another male he met while seeking treatment, who had also been dealing with eating disorders. The two meet regularly over video games and also discuss their hardships with eating disorders. When it comes to Johnathan fully healing, doctors say “it’s like layers of an onion; it’s going to take a long time to peel them away.” 2

Judy Arvin, the other person who I’m about to discuss has had to deal with bulimia in quite a different way. She lost her daughter, Melissa due to the illness. She has created a documentary entitled “Someday Melissa: The Story of an Eating Disorder, Loss and Hope” depicting Melissa’s life but also giving Judy a therapeutic method to channel her grief. In one particular scene in the film, a journal entry of Melissa’s is discovered with a poem she wrote which talks about all of the “somedays” she wanted to accomplish, including loving someone, traveling wherever she wants, and making her family proud. 6 This experience has been extremely sad for Judy but she is also proud to be able to share Melissa’s story.

Overcoming Eating Disorders


Eating disorders can be exceedingly difficult to overcome, considering the fact that they seem to almost take over the lives of those who are struggling with them. Eating disorders can be very controlling in many aspects of a person’s life. I will share the stories of two individuals who have overcome their troubles with the eating disorder, anorexia nervosa. Both are actually doctors today, but they did not always take good care of their health. Rebecca McKnight, when asked to describe her experiences of anorexia in one sentence, she was able to describe it in just a single word – isolation.8 Knight has experienced many hardships due to her anorexia, including falling behind in medical school. She sought treatment and to this day is doing better, but did fall into periods of relapse throughout the process.

The other doctor, more specifically a pediatrician, who once experienced anorexia, gives us her two cents about the disease. Dr. Leslie Walker was a senior in high school at the time and was heading off to college. She wanted to lose weight because many teenage girls wanted to lose weight but what she also loved most was the feeling that came along with all of this. It made her feel in control of her life and invincible. “I was old enough to know that I was never going to be the smartest, the prettiest, the fastest, you know, all those superlatives. But I thought, you know what? I have a chance of being the thinnest.” 7 She has long overcome anorexia but now her own children are actually experiencing this. She claims the most important thing when your child says he or she is fat is to not ignore it. Laughing it off and disagreeing is not the answer. Walker concludes instead one should complement and empower his/her child to take steps to lead a healthy life.

What is better than trying to overcome something as difficult as an eating disorder? How about trying to prevent it in the first place? Six simple ways to help kids and teens develop a healthy relationship with food as described in the article by Turner include teaching embodied eating, don’t make food “bad,” modeling healthy eating, reframing cultural messages, not using the “d” word (diet), and cooking with your kids. 10 To illustrate one of the points, parents are recommended to change the language they use around food. For instance, instead of asking “are you full?” perhaps “are you satisfied?” would be better. It is also advised that parents not talk about their own struggles in front of their kids. “When you talk about how awful you look in those jeans, you're telling kids to judge a body's worth by how it looks.” 10

Effects of Eating Disorders

Not only will a person who has an eating disorder lose that desired weight and fit into the clothes that he or she has always dreamed of, drastic changes to his or her health can occur. It not only effects how you look physically or feel emotionally, but can also have long term consequences. There is a connection between eating binges and other problems that could come about because of it. For example, researchers have found a connection between eating binges and marijuana use. Not to mention, depression is also on the rise. 9 In addition, there seems to be a trend among who you choose to eat with and how much you end up eating. Apparently eating meals with males present may cause individuals to eat less. Both men and women seem to select


larger portions of food around women. And when accompanied by men, again both men and women appear to choose smaller portions. 11 It is not uncommon for women to be expected to eat less food when men are present because cultural norms have deemed it socially acceptable for women to peck at their food while in the company of men. Perhaps eating disorders could be responsible in part for what constitutes women’s beliefs about appropriate eating amounts. 11

But what else could be connected to eating disorders? Do gyms have a responsibility when it comes to eating disorder, wonders researcher Rony Duncan. He describes a young woman at the gym who is choosing to call Amy and suspects that she has an eating disorder based on her appearance and actions in the gym. He questions whether or not gyms have sort of a responsibility when it comes to their members maybe having eating disorders yet still come to the gym to excessively exercise. He states that an assortment of other businesses actively influence the health of their customers but are not obligated to monitor their outcomes. For example, fast food chains cannot refuse to sell food to obese customers, gambling addicts are free to enter casinos, and smokers with COPD are still allowed to buy cigarettes.3 Duncan concludes that banning someone with an eating disorder from coming to the gym will certainly not stop them from exercising. In my own personal observations of the gym, I have come across people of many different shapes and sizes. Some people are very thing looking that I have seen come to the gym often. People are constantly checking their weight before and after each workout I’ve noticed. I do not want to make any assumptions that some people could have eating disorders but there is a chance that maybe at least somebody does. 5

In a way, since eating disorders have become more common, they are sort of seem like a trend right? Not everybody is as opposed to them, certainly not those who are pro-anorexia. “They call her “Ana.” She is a role model to some, a goddess to others — the subject of drawings, prayers and even a creed.” 1 And by Ana, they mean the eating disorder and mental illness, anorexia nervosa (which “Ana” is short for). There are actually groups of people who gather on websites that promote anorexia, posting images and offering reassuring words of “thinspiration” to each other and tips for rapidly losing weight. Going off on a quick little tangent here, I do have “thinspirations” myself. I actually use the terms thinspiration or fitspiration interchangeably to describe someone who inspires or motivates me to exercise more and work harder. After having read this article, I did not realize how having thinspos/fitspos and whatnot are looked upon negatively. I really did not intend for it to be that way in my case. I just have a few individuals that I kind of look up to and use as motivation to strive to better myself.

What is this world coming to? The popular fashion magazine company, Vogue has decided to take action on the issue of eating disorders. Vogue has declared that it no longer wants to work with too thin looking models. They have made the initiative to now only use models that look healthy for their work. They have proposed a pact with 6 important points, but the most important that they wanted to get across is “not knowingly work with models under the age of 16 or who appear to have an eating disorder. We will work with models who, in our view, are healthy and help to promote a healthy body image.” 4 It is good that they are taking a stand on the


issue of eating disorders, but their definition of “healthy” may not be what everyone defines as healthy.

Enter the Conversation

I believe it would be a wonderful idea if there could be a really successful program started that is geared towards helping individuals to recover from eating disorders and stay healthy as a whole. There are dozens of programs out there already with this similar mission but I think it would be really spectacular if I were able to establish my very own program. If you think about it, there are tons of programs geared towards losing weight, which is the exact opposite of what I am writing about, eating disorders. We are not trying to get people to want to lose more weight, because chances are if you have an eating disorder, you will have already lost a significant amount of weight most likely. I would like to see a program that would counteract wanting to lose weight, as opposed to the many weight monitoring programs out there such as Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig to name a few. Instead in my idealized “program,” perhaps individuals could be offered a lot of help dealing with eating disorders, enough to the point where he or she will someday eventually overcome it. We would hire top-notch staff who are qualified and experienced in this field and who could be of great to our patients. Perhaps incentives and prizes could also be offered to encourage good behaviors, such as long shopping sprees or vacation packages to really grand and exotic places. Those would be top prizes for individuals who show great improvement in their health and on their journey. Of course there will be minor prizes including guilt-free foods or gift cards to the person’s favorite stores If a person should succumb, he or she will not be severely punished or anything, but rather the staff will work one on one with, tailoring to the specific needs of individuals to ensure that he or she will get back on the right path. Yes, to be honest, there probably are a ton of programs out there that already strive to help those with eating disorders, but if I could create a new program, what would make my program different is that it would be fun and actually help those who are struggling with eating disorders.

Conclusion

Why did I spend a great deal of time discussing various things about eating disorders? I could have easily just mentioned that they are not good for you and that you should not engage in these activities. It’s as simple as that and is common sense really. I wanted to highlight how eating disorders can actually affect one’s life. There are many implications that can come about because of eating disorders, physically and mentally, affecting many areas in a person’s life. I don’t think many people realize how serious having an eating disorder can actually be. “Oh, go eat a burger”, “just eat more” could be possible comebacks a person may say to someone with an eating disorder. It’s not that easy. That’s not how it works. Informing the general public more about eating disorders can change the stereotypes and stigma associated with eating disorders.


References:

1. Associated Press, Pro-Anorexia Movement Has Cult-like Appeal. May 31, 2005 Available from: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/8045047/#.Uwvq7XKYaUk (Accessed February 24, 2014 ).

2. Chatterjee, R. For Boys With Eating Disorders, Finding Treatment Can Be Hard. October 07, 2013 Available from: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/10/07/229164585/for-boys-with-eating-disorders-finding-treatment-can-be-hard (Accessed February 23, 2014 ).

3. Duncan, R , 'Eating disorders: do gyms have responsibilities?' , Vol. 339: BMJ: British Medical Journal. September 26, 2009; 754 -754. http://www.jstor.org.librarylink.uncc.edu/stable/25672774 (Accessed February 24, 2014)

4. Judkis, M, Vogue Vows to Use Healthier Models: But What’s its Definition of ‘Healthy’? May 04, 2012 Available from: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/arts-post/post/vogue-vows-to-use-healthier-models-but-whats-its-definition-of-healthy/2012/05/04/gIQAF8zO1T_blog.html (Accessed February 26, 2013 ).

5. Ly. A. Personal research. Available from: January 27, 2014. (Acessed February 27, 2014)6. Lyden, J, Mother Speaks Out After Losing Daughter To Bulimia April 02, 2012

Available from: http://www.npr.org/2012/04/02/149846861/mother-speaks-out-after-losing-daughter-to-bulimia (Accessed February 23, 2014 ).

7. Martin, M, Children And Anorexia: Noticing The Warning Signs. February 11, 2014 Available from: http://www.npr.org/2014/02/11/275281272/children-and-anorexia-noticing-the-warning-signs (Accessed February 23, 2014 ).

8. McKnight, R, Boughten, N. 'A Patient's Journey: Anorexia Nervosa', Vol. 340: BMJ: British Medical Journal. January 10, 2010; 46 – 48. http://www.jstor.org.librarylink.uncc.edu/stable/25673602 (Accessed February 25, 2014)

9. Schultz, D, Kids' Eating Binges Could Signal Other Problems Ahead. December 11, 2012 Available from: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/12/10/166877782/kids-eating-binges-could-signal-other-problems-ahead (Accessed February 26, 2014 ).

10. Turner, L , 'Preventing Eating Disorders' , Vol. 76 ( 2 ): Better Nutrition. February 2010; 26 – 28

11. Vedantam, S, Eating Meals with Men May Mean Eating Less. October 04, 2011 Available from: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2011/10/04/140961754/eating-meals-with-men-may-mean-eating-less (Accessed February 24, 2014 ).

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Assignment Two Final