What has the world come to when a girl has to stick her finger down her throat in order to feel pretty? The emphasis on the perfect physique has become such an extreme it’s hard not to have one form of and eating disorder at some point in the expansion of our lives. I have dealt with this growing up along with millions of others. When will this stop? And when will we stop comparing ourselves to our ideal image? Never, we just need to face it with a healthy attitude.
Anorexia and Bulimia are the more commonly known eating disorders. In many instances one accompanies the other. We see people everyday in the media such as Mary-Kate Olsen, Lindsey Lohan, and Nicole Richie battling these disorders. Though shown in a negative aspect from the media’s point of view, this kind of publicity is what brings out young society to think of this as the new trend. I don’t believe these celebrities should be ostracized for these problems because many young girls idolize them and will do anything to be comparable to them.
There are other less common disorders not often talked about but many who suffer from anorexia and bulimia also suffer from these disorders. Some include abuse of laxatives, diet pills, and exercise. These can wreck havoc on the organs and the muscles. An unhealthy addiction to exercise would potentially be burning more calories in one active session than being consumed in the entire day. We need those extra calories to fuel our bodies for the whole day. Burning them all or even more in one session will eventually make the body break down and become seriously and dangerously weak.
Eating disorders are not the answer to the problem. Being anorexic will only kill us or make us even more over-weight in the long run. Bulimia will only burn the esophagus to the point where surgery is the only resort to live a normal life. Not that I have personal gone through it to this extent but I have had times in my life where I thought eating disorders would make me feel better about myself. Being human I know I will come upon other points of weakness in my life where I will feel this way again but I will continue to fight it.
The only effective, healthy way to lose weight is diet and exercise. I know everyone gets tried of hearing this but it is the truth and there is no quick fix. It’s a lifestyle and it takes a lot of work but once the goal is reached it is worth it. Also it’s much easier to keep the weight off because it increases the rate of the metabolism where as eating disorders do the exact opposite and destruction the metabolism and it can’t always be restored to it potential use. Believe it or not, the celebrities that we most idolize follow a healthy diet and exercise plan. Most of us don’t have to time or money to hire personal trainers and work out for hours a day so I say let’s just do our best and feel good about ourselves. Let’s stop the eating disorders. Being thin takes hard work, not the destruction of our bodies.
