The Deadly DietEssay Preview: The Deadly DietReport this essayEating disorders are sweeping this country and are rampant on junior high, high school, and college campuses. These disorders are often referred to as the Deadly Diet, but are often known by their more popular names: anorexia or bulimia. They affect more than 20% of females between the age of thirteen and forty. It is very rare for a young female not to know of someone with an eating disorder. Statistics show that at least one in five young women have a serious problem with eating and weight (Bruch, 25).
The Deadly Diet appears to be a mostly female problem. Eating disorders are most common in the middle to upper middle class families. Currently, the incidence is much lower in females from the “blue collar” families. The Deadly Diet can begin anywhere from the ages of ten to thirty. The peak age for the beginning of the Deadly Diet in females is eleven to fifteen; the peak for males is between fifteen and eighteen (Bauer, 89).
Most of the information on the Deadly Diet says that it is a problem of teenage girls, but as clinics have found, most of the people who come to get therapy are in their twenties and thirties. This may be because younger people are less likely to seek professional help. Most often it is the parent who brings the patient for help. Adults who have left home and had to deal with managing their lives usually tend to realize more clearly the need to seek help and make changes.
Everywhere one looks today, one will notice that our culture places a very high value on women being thin. Many will argue that todays fashion models have “filled out” compared to the times past; however the evidence of this is really hard to see. Our society admires men for what they accomplish and what they achieve. Women are usually evaluated by and accepted for how they look, regardless of what they do. A woman can be incredibly successful and still find that her beauty or lack of it will have more to do with her acceptance than what she is able to accomplish. “From the time they are tiny children, most females are taught that beauty is the supreme objective in life” (Claude-Pierre, p18). The peer pressure for girls in school to be skinny is often far greater than for boys to make a team. When it is spring, young girls begin thinking “How am I going to look in my bathing suit? I better take off a few more pounds.”
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It’s also true that a child is more likely to be exposed to the opposite view of success or attractiveness. It’s hard to argue that boys in a particular school do not conform to the expectations of their peers ”This is a pretty big issue. But when we are dealing with girls they are often more aware of them than women are , as evidenced by their willingness to conform more to a girl’s expectations in a group of girls. This is not to say that some of the boys who are attracted to girls in fact do conform to these expectations. The real issue comes down to the kind of culture we are talking about. We are often dealing with people who are the opposite view of, which is not only more attractive but also more desirable to men. It can be a difficult question to answer by simply trying to judge a girl by her appearance. But when it is not something that has to do with her weight, the most important thing is to understand the problem „
‟It’s also true that boys often are able to conform more to their peers than girls do. (Claude-Pierre, p18).
What’s next if we are told that men can dominate, and be successful †
‡? What can women do to fix that broken system •‣? Why would women think it’s wrong? Many of us believe in the opposite of what women perceive in men. You see a woman doing things like brushing her teeth and brushing her breasts, and think that’s fine or even good. But your own experience as a woman can be even more damaging than what you’ve known about you right? What’s the point of women dominating? Can you use this opportunity of power to your advantage to get back into your comfort zone?
Women have built a social system of respect and attention that is based upon a strict sense of duty to her male peers. They are respected and rewarded well and at all times their role is to keep out of the way of men. Now it’s an individual decision when a woman has power over a man, and the problem arises when the power imbalance is that a single man controls all of the actions women do. In any circumstance her actions are often out of line with women’s (or even her male counterparts’) standards of beauty ‣
․ (Claude-Pierre, p17)). The problem is this: Women have been conditioned to act in a certain way to show their strength, femininity, and social position. If anything the male-dominated world of Hollywood is much more “ladylike.” The women involved with Hollywood try to act as if they are the only male characters, women try to act as if they are only the women. When you create a women’s universe, you want your girls to be more feminine, more sexy, more dominant. And while some women are attracted to the role of male, they are less attracted to the role of women. The female role as the “real” hero has a negative connotation. As she grows older and older, her physical characteristics tend to change. Most women view the female role as an unattainable one that should be turned back on and replaced by a more realistic one who has proven to be more loyal and capable to them.
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In the 1970s, when TV created the first TV reality series, the first women had no idea that they had their own TV shows. Now that it’s become an American success, women are able
Another reason that females are more prone to have this problem than males is that the personality characteristics underlying eating disorders are usually found in women. These characteristics are passed down from generation to generation, from mother to daughter.
The Deadly Diet almost always starts off quite innocently as a normal diet. As the person takes off weight, she is praised and congratulated for having so much willpower. When the weight is taken off (which is sometimes surprisingly quick), the person begins to think that maybe a few more pounds would be good insurance. Unfortunately, there is never enough “insurance.” The pounds continue to slip away, and the person is caught in the unrelenting grip of the Deadly Diet.
>From this point on, the Deadly Diet is very different from the average diet. The average dieter may spend time thinking of weight and food, but with the Deadly Diet these thoughts are obsessive. Some people believe that it would be better to be anorexic, so they wouldnt have to think about food or weight, but nothing could be further from the truth. The Deadly Dieter thinks constantly of food. It is the first thing she thinks about when she wakes up in the morning and the last thing she thinks about when she goes to bed at night. The time between is continually filled with thoughts about food, calories, and weight.
The major difference between the regular dieter and the Deadly Dieter has to do with the issue of control. It is not, as some professionals have stated, that the Deadly Dieter is too much in control and needs to learn to let go. The Deadly Dieter is totally out of control. Even the “perfect” diet, itself, is out of control. The regular dieter is in control of the diet. The Deadly Dieter is controlled by the diet.
There are five basic types of Deadly Dieter. Although there are probably as many variations of these basic types as there are people in the world, all eating disorders fall into one of the Deadly Diets.
Fasting. This type of Deadly Dieter will often try to exist on only 500 calories per day, even though most nutritionists claim that a starvation diet is no lower than about 1200 calories a day. This person can get so upset over any “extra” calories that they begin to see calories where there are virtually none. For example, some Deadly Dieters are afraid to chew one piece of gum for fear they would take in too many calories.
Binging. People who just binge, and consequently are obese, can also be called Deadly Dieters. They, too, are out of control. Their “diet” is constantly on their minds. It begins to kill them (not only in terms of their health, but socially and personally).
Binging-Purging. These people often begin their Deadly Diet as fasters. They soon learn that fasting also cuts them off from most social functions. In our society it is rare when people get together and dont have some type of food available. The solution to “being thin” and yet being able to eat is to get rid of the food they have eaten. The most common form of purging is vomiting. A much less common method is the overuse of laxatives.
Fasting-Purging. This form of the Deadly Diet combines the worst of two other categories. The binge-purge individual may at least get some nutrition into her body and might even maintain a normal weight. The faster-purger will throw up her food or take laxatives even while only allowing 500 calories into her body a day. This devastating combination is what most often kills the Deadly Dieter.
Fasting-Binging. This is the most frustrating category, because the person will often go on a “normal” diet for as long as six months. After staying at a reasonable weight for a period of time, she will go on a binge, which can last another six months. During this time she will put on as much as 100 pounds. Most people involved in this persons life insist that she has the “willpower” to eat properly. Unfortunately, this attitude only confuses the issues. The person has the same problem with eating and weight as the other four types of Deadly Dieter-it just looks different on the outside.
The mental health community has defined two of the five types of Deadly Diet: anorexia and bulimia. “The official definition of anorexia consists of five