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The effect of obesity
Effects of media on perceptions of body image
Effects of media on perceptions of body image
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We have all heard the typical stereotypes of the “perfect body.” Who really has a perfect body anyways, and what does it look like? Are all girls supposed to be tiny and twig like, and are all guys supposed to be macho muscle men? No, and if this were true then that’s how we would have been created, but were not, so be proud of who you are. Thanks to media and today’s culture people are destroying their bodies. We cannot put all the blame on the media though, psychological and mental disorders such as depression, anxiety, guilt, the loss of control, and the need for attention, are among some of the factors that can lead to eating disorders. The three disorders commonly referred to are obesity, anorexia, and bulimia. Each disorder is dangerous to the body, and in many cases can lead to death. Eating disorders affect 70 million people worldwide, and in a single persons life approximately 50,000 people will die because of this terrifying disease.
Obesity is the increase in body weight caused by excessive accumulation of fat. It can be caused by many factors including the ingestion of excessive calories, inactivity, and insufficient exercise. Overeating may also result as a pattern established by family and cultural environments, leading to an emotional dependence on food. Some experts, however, may say that obesity is based upon genetics and physiology, rather than a behavioral or psychological problem. There are many myths regarding obesity, for instance, those who are obese eat more than the non obese. A study in 1979 proved that 19 out of 20 obese individuals eat the same amount as the non obese. People believe that obese individuals are emotionally disturbed, but although they deal with immense social pressures, they do not posses more or less emotions then others. Body fat is said to be unhealthy but in actuality some body fat is beneficial. Another myth is that the obese are at greater risk of cardiovascular disease. This is true with yoyo diets which cause weight to fluctuate throughout adult life. It is thought that obese people are lazy and unfit, but many do exercise and live longer than those who are thin, unfit, and do not exercise. Everyone gets “fat” with old age. Weight increases with age because people become less active, metabolism slows, and you loose muscle mass. Obesity is not untreatable; radical treatments include shutting the jaw, stapling the stomach, and intestinal bypass operations.
Obesity is a medical condition in which excess body fat has accumulated to the extent that it may have an adverse effect on health, leading to reduce life expectancy and/or increased health problems. Obesity has been a health problem ever since infectious disease had began in the first half of the 20th Century. The person with obesity is not the only person who is affected by their disease. In the case of childhood obesity, It can affect the parents because they might be the cause of the child’s issues. It can also lead to many different health problems such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and respiratory problems, and it can also even lead to death. Obesity has affected the world in many ways: task forces have been formed to address the issue, people are suffering from health problems due to obesity, and others suffer psychological and social issues.
About 2.8 billion adults every year die of obesity (Diet). Rachel Epstein wrote the book “Eating Habits and Disorders” which talks about obesity being a disease. Obesity is a condition with extra body fat which often starts to form in childhood (Epstein 25). While obesity for some adults can be life-threatening (Epstein 25). It can also form psychosocial problems (Epstein 25). Being obese causes a risk in diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, kidney trouble and more (Epstein 25). Being obese during pregnancy can cause many problems for the mom, and for the baby (Epstein 25). Any of these things could cause many problems either in the future, or in the present (Epstein 25). The worse the eating habits, the harder it is to cure (Epstein 25). The government needs to do more about obesity because obesity rates are rising, many kids are being victims of obesity and they don’t even know it, also Medical Care is taking a big part with the growing obesity rates.
Over the years the rise in body image dissatisfaction has grown as both male and female progress to adulthood. This factor can be contributed to societal standards that the media presents to the public daily. These standards continue to rise making the body image more difficult to attain. With these standards comes the push to seek the “perfect body”. This myth of true beauty commonly found in today’s society, is the price that adolescents buy into often sacrificing their health. The perfect body can often present a distorted view of one-self leading to unhealthy methods of weight reduction. The most common methods for weight reduction are the diseases Anorexia and Bulimia. The similarities and differences between Anorexia and Bulimia will be used to prove that the society’s pressure to fit a certain mold contribute to the onset of the disease.
Look in the mirror. Do you like what you see? Most of us have come to appreciate ourselves for who we are. While other’s struggle to achieve the perfect body. They strive to be what is depicted in fashion magazines and movies. The never ending obsession to be the perfect size zero. This inevitably can lead to eating disorders. Eating disorders can cause someone to have an unhealthy image of themselves and food is the enemy. In a national survey at the Mclean Hospital in Massachusetts it was estimated that over 9 million people suffer with eating disorders. They can struggle with anorexia, bulimia or binge eating. A study conducted by the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders states that most of these diseases start before the age of twenty. Another growing problem in the United States is obesity. Over 60 million Americans suffer from this disease, this according to the American Obesity Association (gale opposing viewpoints: eating disorders 2010).
Researchers and doctors find eating disorders to be very complicated to figure out due to the many different factors leading to eating disorders. The majority of these issues derive from media images portraying the “perfect” bodies bringing people to believe that they need to change their eating habits to become that “perfect” image. On average, people waste around 31 hours a week on the internet and spend anywhere from two to four hours a day looking up cosmetic surgery procedures and investigating dietary and weight loss plans in an attempt to get that model worthy body (The Telegraph). Men and women should be proud of whom they are and not be envious of others so much as to want to change their entire appearance; God made us all perfect through his eyes; why would anyone want to change that uniqueness about them?
Social pressure to have a perfect body is experienced by many women and young girls. The perfect body has been constructed by society and by the media and women and girls is expected to conform to it. “The American Anorexia and Bulimia Association states that: 1000 American women die of anorexia each year and that people with eating disorders have the second highest fatality rate of the psychological disorders”. Women are dying each year because of body image disturbance disorders and discovering the link between media images and perfect body image could be helpful in finding a successful intervention.
Eating disorders are described as an illness involving eating habits that are irregular and an extreme concern with body image or weight. Eating disorders tend to appear during teenage years, but can develop at any age. Although more common in women, eating disorders can affect any age, gender or race. In the United States, over 20 million women and 10 million men are personally affected by eating disorders. There are many different causes of eating disorders such as low self esteem, societal pressures, sexual abuse and the victims perception of food. Eating disorders are unique to the sufferer and often, their perception of themselves is so skewed, they may not be aware they have an eating disorder. Media, for quite some time now, has played a significant part in eating disorders. Magazines with headlines ‘Summer Body’, or ‘Drop LB’s Fast!’ attract the attention of girls who may be insecure with themselves. Television productions such as the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show or American’s Next Top Model, show airbrushed and photoshopped women who have body types that may be unachievable. Those who are suffering from eating disorders can suffer dangerous consequences, and it is important to seek help.
Although many individuals are uncertain about the increasing statistics associated with obesity, more than seventy percent of men and virtually sixty-two percent of women within the United States adult population are overweight or obese (Wilmore, Costill, & Kenney). Obesity refers to the condition of having an excessive amount of body fat. If an individual’s amount of body fat becomes too excessive, he/she is at a much greater risk of developing life-altering diseases such as heart failure, hypertension, type II diabetes, cancer, gallbladder disease, osteoarthritis, etc. (Wilmore, et al., 2008).
Eating disorders are a group of conditions characterized by severe disturbances in eating behavior with either an extreme reduction or an extreme increase of food intake, which negatively affects the individual's mental and physical health. There are two main types of eating disorders – anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. There is a third category of eating disorders called “eating disorders not otherwise specified”. Binge eating disorder is categorized under this. Eating disorders mainly appear during adolescence and early adulthood and affect women and girls much more than males. Eating disorders are not self-inflicted diseases, but real illnesses with biological and psychological causes. They often co-exist with other disorders such as depression and substance abuse and can lead to a number of other health complications such as kidney failure, heart problems and even death.
The third most common disorder in adolescent is eating disorder (Reijonen, 2003). There are three types of eating disorder. The prevalence rate of eating disorder has been increasing over the past 50 years. They are anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder. These disorders start as early as adolescence that can cause psychological and medical problems. All three have similar etiology such as biological and sociocultural factors that develops the eating disorder. Even though the three types of eating disorder can overlap with similar characteristics, each type of disorder, there is a specific treatment that works best for one and not the other.
An eating disorder is a serious health condition involving extremely unhealthy dietary habits. There are a number of accepted eating disorder treatments that depend on the symptoms and severity of the illness. The most effective treatments involve both psychological as well as physical issues with the ultimate goal being a healthy dietary lifestyle. The team approach to treatment involves professionals with experience in eating disorders that usually includes a medical provider, mental health workers, registered dieticians and case managers. These individuals work together in hopes of avoiding a life threatening situation.
Millions of American women struggle with eating disorders. An eating disorder is a disturbance in eating behavior. Most people associate eating disorders with anorexia. nervosa, "active self-starvation or sustained loss of appetite that has psychological origins" (Coon 133), or bulimia nervosa, "excessive eating (gorging) usually followed by self-induced vomiting and/ or taking laxatives (Coon 411). They need to purge their bodies of calories in any way possible, so they may also use diuretics or even exercise compulsively.
Obesity is a physiological condition characterised by an excessive accumulation of body fat, specifically the build-up of adipose tissue beneath the skin. In recent years, the number of people diagnosed with clinical obesity has increased dramatically, with governments desperately trying to tackle the obesity epidemic and its associated consequences (McLannahan and Clifton, 2008). Studies have found that the prevalence of obesity once stood at an estimated 9.8% (Kelly, Yang, Chen, Reynolds & He, 2008), a considerable figure representing almost 400 million individuals worldwide. Even though obesity has now been recognised as a major problem the number of people affected is increasing rapidly, with almost 300,000 deaths attributable to obesity in the USA each year (Allison, Fontaine, Manson, Stevens, & VanItallie, 1999). Excessive amounts of fat can prove dangerous as the condition has a very high comorbidity rate with other long term health issues such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension and cancer (Pi-Sunyer, 1993). Numerous examples of media, medical journals and educational literature concerning obesity refer to the condition as a disease, with an increasing use of the word ‘Epidemic’ to describe the somewhat recent surge of obesity cases in western societies (Boero, 2007), however there is little material available that offers evidence for obesity meeting specification for disease. Instead it has been proposed that obesity is alternatively a risk factor for developing other potentially harmful diseases, influenced by a variety of other factors i.e. genetics, cultural ideals and biological impairments.
In accordance, studies show that our “Perception of the Body” and our external influences contribute to eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa. We are so convinced that unless our bodies look exactly like the model on television we are not enough or we are not
Many people hope for the “perfect” body, the one they see in all the magazines.