2008 Woodie Awards
When Dieting Can Become Deadly
Rochelle Siegel
Issue date: 10/21/05 Section: Life & Times
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Around 90% of female college students try to control their weight, and 22% say they diet almost constantly. Our society's obsession with thinness and dieting, puberty, going away to college, a traumatic world event or a more personal one, like a breakup, could all cause a person to begin extreme eating behaviors.
Many times the victims of this behavior do not even see that anything is wrong, they don't believe it when people tell them that they are slowly killing themselves, all they know it they want to be "skinny".
Anorexia accounts for more deaths than any other mental illness. Anorexia starts with body dissatisfaction and people decide "I want to go on a diet" or "I want to become a vegetarian." Sometimes it is even encouraged-"dieting and exercising are good for you; this is beautiful," or so we hear everyday. We live in a culture where we look at extremely thin models and call that normal, and call that attractive. We have become so used to seeing it everyday on T.V. and in magazine that we have lost our level of suspicion for someone who is at a low weight.
By the time the disease is discovered, much of the damage has already been done. Hair falls out. Skin turns orange, or yellow. Teeth and gums erode. Menstruation stops. Bones become weak and brittle. The heart, kidney, liver, stomach and other organs become seriously damaged and start to shut down. The brain shrinks. That makes potentially deadly eating disorder, like anorexia, a serious issue for young women-but getting them to seek out help can be a challenge.
People with anorexia did not choose to have this illness anymore than a person chooses to have cancer. Dr. Cecily Fitzgerald, an emergency physician who treats patients with eating disorders says that, "it's important to stress that it's not about the food, because parents, spouses, loved ones-they always feel it's just about the food. It's really not about the food. A person with anorexia can no more eat a sandwich than a person can eat a shoe."
Many times the victims of this behavior do not even see that anything is wrong, they don't believe it when people tell them that they are slowly killing themselves, all they know it they want to be "skinny".
Anorexia accounts for more deaths than any other mental illness. Anorexia starts with body dissatisfaction and people decide "I want to go on a diet" or "I want to become a vegetarian." Sometimes it is even encouraged-"dieting and exercising are good for you; this is beautiful," or so we hear everyday. We live in a culture where we look at extremely thin models and call that normal, and call that attractive. We have become so used to seeing it everyday on T.V. and in magazine that we have lost our level of suspicion for someone who is at a low weight.
By the time the disease is discovered, much of the damage has already been done. Hair falls out. Skin turns orange, or yellow. Teeth and gums erode. Menstruation stops. Bones become weak and brittle. The heart, kidney, liver, stomach and other organs become seriously damaged and start to shut down. The brain shrinks. That makes potentially deadly eating disorder, like anorexia, a serious issue for young women-but getting them to seek out help can be a challenge.
People with anorexia did not choose to have this illness anymore than a person chooses to have cancer. Dr. Cecily Fitzgerald, an emergency physician who treats patients with eating disorders says that, "it's important to stress that it's not about the food, because parents, spouses, loved ones-they always feel it's just about the food. It's really not about the food. A person with anorexia can no more eat a sandwich than a person can eat a shoe."