b'| ELITEHEALTH GUIDEthe PERFECTION factorDo We Glorify Beauty and Promote Distorted Body Image and Eating Disorders?By Kate NoonanCarlys moods seem dictated by the numbers on her bathroom scale, as well as her constant attempts to count calories on every food item she desires. Any numbers over her designated ideal for body weight or minimal daily caloric intake are defined as a failure. Carlys weight today is two pounds above her ideal.With frustration and sadness, she sobs, Im just not perfect enough!UNDERSTANDING CARLY AND BODY IMAGE/EATING DISORDERS has expressed that thousands of advertisements are viewed by The American Psychological Association (APA, 2019) indicateswomen and men daily. These ads focus on models that are tall, that eating disorders are abnormal, health- and life-threaten- slim, and often digitally altered. Kilbourne indicates many emo-ing disorders. 1Anorexia nervosa is a condition in which peopletional failures to live up to perfect images that dont exist. She believe they are overweight when they are dangerously thin.has even observed that as many as 50 percent of three-to-six-This may actually limit their eating to a point of starvation.year-old girls worry about weight. 3With Bulimia nervosa, people eat excessive food, followed byLow self-esteem that stems from ideals in teenage advertising vomiting or laxative use. Binge eating is an experience of out- can have detrimental effects on teenagers. Young women with of-control eating. Cultural pressures, parental attitudes towardlow self-esteem report activities such as cutting, bullying, drink-weight and diet, and stressful/traumatic events trigger disor- ing or feeling badly about themselves. According to insurer Blue dered eating. The neurotransmitter, dopamine, may be alteredCross and JAMA Pediatrics, young males are commonly con-in both bulimia and anorexia, but in opposite ways. Researchcerned about physical appearance and muscularity. They have suggests that people with anorexia experience food-relatedalso expressed an interest in steroid use (wikipedia.org.,2019). 4sensitivity and an increase in worry and anxiety with food-re- PsychCentral (2018) has featured an article by author Therese lated stimuli. Others with bulimia have a weaker-than-normalBorchard indicating that eating disorders have increased among response to the dopamine-related reward circuitry (Kirsten Weir,middle-aged and older women. Borchard expressed this is a APA, 2016). 2 factor related to our cultures obsession with thinness. Because Brain chemistry may be a factor influencing how some believe,weight loss can be contributed to other illnesses or medication image self, and form patterns of eating, but our cultural influ- side effects, poor body images and eating disorders can easily ences are many. be underdiagnosed in older women. 5ISTOCK Advertising critic Jean Kilbourne (hsph.harvard.edu, 2015)It seems the desire to be thin may never fade.www.elitecme.com |2019| ELITEHEALTH GUIDE 5'