posted
The cover story this week for Newsweek deals with the decreasing age of anorexics. It's becoming more and more common for children as young as 9 to be treated for anorexia. This is unbelievable to me. These kids weigh 50 pounds and want to lost weight.
The story has examples of kids being too weak to stand up yet refusing to eat. Or eating 5 cheerios as a meal. Or eating just a carrot all day.
How does this happen? How do body image problems advance to the point that kids who are still growing and developing stop eating?
The article mentions some recent research indicating that eating disorders may be genetic, much like depression.
Does anyone have any experience with this?
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posted
Yikess, I heard an 8-year-old at a birthday party refuse cake because she was on a diet! WhAT??
Posts: 308 | Registered: Sep 2005
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posted
Considering the extremely rapid rise of obesity and the accompanying rise of "adult onset" diabetes in children, refusing cake because one is on a diet hardly merits a "WHAT??".
While anorexia is a problem for a very tiny segment of society, I very much suspect that all the recent articles disparaging "underweight people" is merely a disservice, commercial pandering to the overweight -- who now make up the majority of the American population -- to make them feel better about being overweight.
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posted
This surprises you? Have you seen the images in the media that kids are presented with?
Yes, some of it might be genetic, but I just saw an ad on TV (like ten minutes ago) for a weight-loss business which will remain nameless. First, one of the women (it's almost always women) who used the product tears up her before picture. To my eyes, the message this sends is that people who are fat are disposable. Then, before and after pictures of two or three other women are shown, and as far as I can see, they didn't start out excessively fat. Another weight-loss ad I recall seeing recently had a woman crowing about how she had gone from a size 12 to a size 3 or 5, something like that. Size 12 is not exactly morbidly obese...or maybe it is these days, but it doesn't seem so to me. Again, the message is sent: the smaller you are the more acceptable you are.
And then there are the magazines. Standing in line at the grocery store sometimes, I scan the covers of the magazines displayed there. Generally something like 85 to 90 percnet of these covers have either something about the latest weight loss plan or are making fun of some celebrity who is deemed to be too fat. When just taking into consideration the women's magazines, the total of covers promoting weight-loss articles inside goes up to pretty near 100 percent.
I won't even bother to go into the "role models" kids, primarily girls, are given...actresses and models, many of whom (thankfully not all) are either extremely thin or are airbrushed in photos to look that way.
These are not healthy ideas and images for kids to see. Neither are parents who tell their kids, in public in front of others, that they're "too fat", which I've seen happen a number of times, usually in cases where the child is not fat at all. So, even if some component of anorexia is genetic, there are awful social pressures - at least here in the states - pushing kids to be as thin as they can possibly be.
I don't have any problem with promoting healthy eating. That's a good thing. But most of the weight paranoia I see around me has nothing to do with health, and everything to do with image.
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posted
So you are saying "adult onset" diabetes in children has nothing to do with their health?
As for airbrushing, the tabloid which first published the recent photos of "underweight actresses" is being sued in Britain for slander in "touching up" those photographs.
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posted
Obesity in children is a problem, but it and anorexia in children are symptoms of the same problem. As a society we are fixated on food. For some that leads to eating too much, for others it the exact opposite. The solution is not to promote 'diets' in 8 year olds, but to promote a life long habit of healthy eating. For many this means making different choices in foods, it might help to have home cooked meals, with the whole family eating together, with vegetables and fruit playing a role as well as carbs and protien.
Childhood obesity shouldn't be ignored, but the solution lies in less pop and candy on a daily basis, and encouraging kids to turn off the TV or video games to go outside. Most 8 year olds come home from school turn on TV and don't move except maybe to do homework. They won't go outside because none of their friends are outside either. I'm not so old that I often get to say things like this, but when I was a kid, I often went outside for a couple hours after school if the weather wasn't too bad, and in the summer we spent the whole day outside, often coming back briefly for lunch.
After reading that article, though, a lot of my assumptions on anorexia were challenged. For some of these kids it might not have even been that they thought they were fat, they just weren't hungry. Picky eaters have been disparaged by mothers for generations, but these kids seem to take it to a new extreme. I think that looking at the genetic causes might help suggest some treatment other than force feeding the kids. If it is caused by a chemical imbalance, maybe a drug can be developed which improves appetite or reduces the delusions. I'm that such a drug would help not only these children, but older teens and adults who also suffer from anorexia. In fact, looking at the article, having these symptomatic children may help us to find for the first time some of the answers behind obesity and anorexia without resorting to unprovable psychology theories.
Posts: 349 | Registered: May 2003
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posted
I'm saying that a piece of cake once in awhile is not going to give anyone diabetes.
I'm also saying that the promotion of thinness in this country doesn't have much to do with concern for people's health. It has to do with 1) promoting the idea that only very thin people are attractive and 2) promoting the diet business, which is worth billions of dollars annually.
I'm not saying that being "fat", whatever that means, is good for anyone. I am saying that moderation in all things is a good thing, and that includes dieting and attitudes about food.
I'm also saying that I don't appreciate, as a woman who is overweight, that it keeps being emphasized that I should hate myself because I am not thin. Especially since my weight has genetic and metabolic components to it that I have no control over. I may be fat, but I don't eat all the time. That is a stereotype that I resent quite a lot, actually. In fact, I eat less than most people I know. I also do my best to eat healthy foods within my budget constratints and the constraints of a number of food allergies I have. I'm not always successful in that, but I try.
Edit to remove extra word.
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posted
littlemissattitude, I hear what you are saying about messages from the media but I think it is imperative not focus on that aspect. I have experience with eating disorders myself, and I know a *lot* of people with eating disorders, and not one of them looks at the desire to be thin and beautiful one of the underlying causes of thier eating disorder. Helped to feed the fire, yes, but for the most part eating disorders aren't *really* about looks.
I think eating disorders in younger kids is more a symptom of a society that increasingly does not offer a community-- kids (adults, too, while we're at it) are more and more isolated, exposed to preassures and worries earlier and earlier, and have to way to cope or deal with them. Perhaps the pervasiveness of the media helps to push the idea that control can come from restricting food and becoming thin, but I don't think you can place all the blame there.
This isn't to say that I don't get extrememly angry when I hear little girls moan about how big their thighs are and how they want to diet. That, I belive, is a result of media and society's preoccupation with appearance and thinness, but I do not think that a nine year old girl (or indeed anyone) will develop something diagnosable as an actual eating disorder without some other underlying cause.
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quote: While anorexia is a problem for a very tiny segment of society, I very much suspect that all the recent articles disparaging "underweight people" is merely a disservice, commercial pandering to the overweight -- who now make up the majority of the American population -- to make them feel better about being overweight.
Bollocks. Anorexia has the highest rate of death for any mental illness. Eating disorders exist, they are a lot more common than most people think, and they are a real, real problem. We condemn obesity all the time in the media, why not condemn people for being skinny? That's a very sizeist attitude. You and your fellow fat-haters can bite me. On my fat, ex-anorexic @$$.
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posted
I read the article again, and there is one thing I'm still not clear on. If anorexia is based almost exclusively in genetics, why does is suddenly seem to be manifesting more in non-traditional populations - men, the middle-aged, and ethnic groups other than whites? I can't really believe that it's just a case of paying more attention now, of suddenly noticing that this is happening.
I wonder if anyone has done a cross-cultural study, to see if anorexia manifests in other cultures and societies at anywhere near the same rate as in the US, and if the rate is different, if that would change the perception that anorexia is largely genetic.
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posted
I think the problem with anorexia in non-traditional populations is just that it's getting more exposure than it used to.
It like depression 15 years ago. People were depressed before then, but then it came out in the open -- everyone realized it was a chemical thing and passed on genetically. Before that people thought that depression (and alcoholism) were just excuses for lazy people.
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posted
Note: this post is not meant to flame or be overly harsh. I just feel the need to get my point across.
quote: I very much suspect that all the recent articles disparaging "underweight people" is merely a disservice, commercial pandering to the overweight -- who now make up the majority of the American population -- to make them feel better about being overweight.
When the current fashions stop focusing on the worst parts of my body, you can tell me there is commercial pandering to the overweight.
When I can find size 18 clothing in the "Look I'm Cute!" instead of the "tents are cool!" section of the department store, you can tell me that there is commercial pandering to the overweight.
When I'm not constantly seeing super skinny women shown everywhere around me, pretending that that is the right and proper way of things, you can tell me there is a commercial pandering to the overweight.
When the average health indicator stops telling me I'm morbidly unhealthy even though I exercise and eat right, and starts encouraging me to play video games and eat cheetos, you can tell me there is a commercial pandering to the overweight.
When I start feeling good about being overweight, in the midst of all this so-called "pandering", you can start telling me that the story about a nine-year old with Anorexia is really trying to make me feel better about my body type.
As it stands, though, I recommend you keep your pretty mouth shut.
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posted
This might be a little bit of a derail, but does anyone know if a 3-year-old can be anorexic? My son does not eat. I mean to the point that he hasn't gained a pound in at least 9 months. He's extremely anxious, won't try new foods, and if he doesn't like dinner he just won't eat at all. I don't mean once in a while - I mean sometimes 4 or 5 days in a row. I wonder if food issues can start this young?
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quote:Originally posted by littlemissattitude: I wonder if anyone has done a cross-cultural study, to see if anorexia manifests in other cultures and societies at anywhere near the same rate as in the US, and if the rate is different, if that would change the perception that anorexia is largely genetic.
I work with people from all over the world, many of them from nations that are poverty-stricken. They come to work in this country for a better life. I have been told by more than one person that the eating disorders that we see in this country are unheard of in their country. One woman from Africa told me that it is only when there is too much food available that people can start to play games with it.
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quote:This might be a little bit of a derail, but does anyone know if a 3-year-old can be anorexic? My son does not eat. I mean to the point that he hasn't gained a pound in at least 9 months. He's extremely anxious, won't try new foods, and if he doesn't like dinner he just won't eat at all. I don't mean once in a while - I mean sometimes 4 or 5 days in a row. I wonder if food issues can start this young?
Sometimes, but it's very rare. More likely, though, stress is manifesting in food issues. What he eats or won't eat is one of the few things a small child has control over. I recommend talking to your pediatrician about your concerns, and, if necessary, getting a referral to a child psychologist to see if you can figure out what's going on.
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posted
aspectre, I don’t think any one here has said that obese children and late onset diabetes in children are OK. What you seem to be implying is that anorexia should not be taken seriously because many children are overweight.
I don’t see the article as “disparaging underweight people“. Anorexic children are suffering from a serious illness, they are not simply underweight. Anorexia and obesity are two separate problems, which while they may have some common themes (e.g. food and self esteem problems) are not opposites of each other.
There is a huge focus on obesity in Britain at the moment including reports that some health authorities are refusing to operate on patients with a body mass index of over 30 for non urgent operations. Encouragement to eat healthily and exercise is good, but that should not involve pretending anorexia is not a problem.
Posts: 169 | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
Interesting.... pre-adolescent children, they are actually advocating, in some cases, the "finish your food or you don't leave the table" approach, which my mother followed from the get-go.
I've always been a picky eater, it caused me quite a few memorable parental run-ins. My food issues have always been taste-related though.
I think one of the commonalities between both ends of the weight spectrum is that once you end up too far one direction or the other, it ends up putting the body in a self-perpetuating biochemical mode for that state, that is extremely hard to overcome with the conscious mind alone.
posted
I don't think aspectre is entirely correct in saying anorexia features are pandering to the overweight, but I just read an article about Tyra Banks wearing a "fat suit". She then said something like "Gosh, was that hard! We should be Way nicer to fat people! I hope this makes people more accepting of the obese and overweight population!" And as a new talk show host, it's not a bad idea. Oprah's struggle with weight certainly hasn't hurt her show.
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quote:Originally posted by ketchupqueen: I saw that clip, and I actually liked it. She wasn't expecting the reaction she got.
No, she wasn't expecting it. Because no one who is not fat and never has been tends not to believe the sorts of humiliations the overweight have to put up with every day. And it isn't just the people who are so big that they can't operate in the real world without assitance who are subjected to this. I can't count the times when I've been walking down the street and random people have driven by and shouted rude comments about my size or made oinking or mooing noises.
I've also been subjected, at various times, to complete strangers walking up to me and saying, "You know, there's something you can do about that," or "I've got a diet you could use," often proceeding to explain weight loss to me in a tone and with a vocabulary that makes me suspect they think I'm mentally challenged.
Oh, and then there's the time, which I think I've mentioned here before, when some random guy walked up to me and told me that I might as well just kill myself because I'm too fat and ugly to be seen in public.
Often, when I relate these stories, people don't believe me, or suggest that I'm exaggerating or that I'm being oversensitive about the issue.
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posted
Oh, my god, lil' miss attitude, that is horrible treatment. Simply horrible.
quote: quote:aspectre, an 8 year old on a diet is always cause for concern.
Unless ordered by a doctor and overseen by a nutritionist. [Smile]
There are legitimate reasons. But if the kid was not very, very overweight, yeah, I'd be concerned.
(Though she could be diabetic, etc.)
Yes. When I was about nine or ten, a father of a soccer team-member asked what kind of soda I wanted, and (being the diabetic that I am) I asked for a Diet Coke. He looked at me and said, "What, are you watching your weight?"
As it was quite obvious that I was underweight for my height, I was extremely insulted that he thought a TEN YEAR OLD would be watching her weight. It just goes to show you that some people don't think that there's maybe many other things going on behind your physical exterior, as in say metabolic things that you can't control, or allergies, or poverty... the list could go on forever.
People should celebrate their individualism by accepting others. That's what I think.
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posted
I believe you-- I just can't believe people do that, if you know what I mean. It's horrible. I think it's a good thing to go on national tv and condemn that.
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It's horrible. I think it's a good thing to go on national tv and condemn that.
