Beth, who has battled anorexia, bulimia, and excessive exercising for 25 years, is not one of those women. In a therapy group for pregnant women with eating disorders, Beth explains what's going through her head: "This baby's going to come and you're going to be big and fat. Who are you going to be if you're big and fat? That's just not acceptable, sorry."

Luckily, Beth's baby is born at a healthy weight and she plans to continue treatment. However, her husband Mike worries about the effect her eating disorder may have on their three children. He breaks down as he says, "Kids pick up on everything. its something we are extremely aware of and I will be extremely sad, especially if my daughter... if they would ever have to go through that."

Pregnant With An Eating Disorder: "I Want To Get Well" [ABC News]

Earlier: New Standard For Obese Women: Zero Weight Gain During Pregnancy

Though anorexia and bulimia are already in the APA's diagnostic manual, with proper descriptions, diagnostic criteria, and potential treatment options, binge eating, the process of consuming large amounts of food in a compulsive manner without purging, is often lumped under the vague "ED-NOS" or "eating disorder not otherwise specified," a diagnosis given to those who display symptoms of disordered eating but don't fit the standard eating disorder diagnostic criteria.

As Melissa Healy of the Times writes, "In light of new research and a seemingly growing population of patients who fit the broad description of binge eaters, psychiatrists must decide whether "binge eating disorder" should stand alongside anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa as a separate psychiatric condition — identifiable by a distinct set of symptoms, a recognizable pattern of progression and a track record of response to certain treatments." Supporters of this inclusion feel it would help sufferers of binge eating disorder to get proper treatment, while critics, Healy notes, fear that the diagnosis would be overused and given to people who aren't necessarily suffering from compulsive overeating as much as a "lack of willpower."

"In short," Healy writes, "the specialists involved in the deliberations are picking their way through a minefield of controversies: the causes of a national obesity crisis, personal responsibility versus the medicalization of risky behavior, the nature of addiction and compulsion, even the respective roles of nature and nurture in shaping who we are and how we behave."

As someone who has been fortunate enough to receive proper treatment for an eating disorder, I find it somewhat troublesome that the concern over including binge eating disorder in the DSM comes back to worrying about doctors over prescribing medication or patients who rely on the diagnosis as some excuse to continue engaging in unhealthy behavior. As anyone who has been through a period of binge eating can tell you, binges are often terrifying and filled with a great deal of shame and sadness. This is not about just wanting to hang out and eat four boxes of cereal; the mental and emotional processes that go into overeating are much more complex than that.

I was able to get proper treatment because my eating disorder was clearly defined in the DSM, and the treatment plan for someone struggling with my symptoms was laid out and continues to be perfected by researchers dedicating to studying the disorder. Will binge eating disorder be overdiagnosed if it is included? Perhaps. But that's a phenomenon that occurs on every end of the mental illness spectrum, and it rings a bit false to blame those who are struggling for the psychiatric community's tendency (and big pharma's push) to write a prescription for those who might not need it. As they always told us in the hospital: it's never about the food, and it's never about the weight. It's the behaviors that need exploring, the behaviors that need to be treated. If including binge eating disorder in the DSM ensures that proper research, treatment, and understanding is given to those struggling with the behaviors, it might make all the difference in the world.

Is Binge Eating A Psychiatric Disorder? [LATimes]

The mother says three boys began calling her daughter (identified in the suit by the initials B.G.) "fat" in sixth grade, and that two more boys joined in the daily bullying the next year. Her lawyer Edward A. Olds elaborates:

The offensive comments explicitly and implicitly conveyed the message that B.G. was unattractive and overweight.The comments were sexual in nature or conveyed sexual stereotyping.

B.G.'s mom says a guidance counselor did nothing when told about the bullying, and that school officials began harassing her when she tried to homeschool her daughter. She also says that the boys' actions triggered the anorexia that landed her daughter in an inpatient program in February 2008, at a "dangerously low" weight.

However, Lynn Grefe, CEO of the National Eating Disorders Association, says it's too simplistic to say bullying causes an eating disorder. Rather, she says, "With eating disorders, we say you're born with a gun and life pulls the trigger." Carrie Arnold of ED Bites adds,

[T]he bullying didn't cause this poor girl's anorexia. It might have triggered it, yes, in the sense that the bullying caused her to throw her lunch away, which led to the energy imbalance, which led to anorexia. But it didn't cause her anorexia. Science shows us that genetics form the biggest risk factor for eating disorders, although many environmental factors can play a role in triggering the disorder. This type of bullying is sadly common, and if every case resulted in anorexia, we would have many more cases of eating disorders than we presently do.

The causes of eating disorders are extremely complex, and not fully understood — the question of whether skinny models actually "incite thinness," for instance, is still being debated. But the cause-trigger paradigm that Grefe and Arnold cite seems to be the most common one, and if we accept it, we need to ask how severe a trigger has to be in order to merit a lawsuit. Could an anorexia sufferer sue a magazine? Her parents? Since weight loss itself can be a trigger for anorexia, could someone sue the restaurant where she got food poisoning?

Of course, non-anorexic people sue restaurants for giving them food poisoning, and this brings up an important point: many triggers for eating disorders are bad things anyway. Bullying is a good example. Even if it didn't "cause" B.G.'s anorexia, the school should have put a stop to it. Law professor Bruce Ledewitz says the real issue is that bullying "deprives the victim of an educational opportunity." And Arnold writes, "Schools should refuse to tolerate bullying because it's harmful and wrong, not just because someone developed an eating disorder." So while the lawsuit brought by B.G.'s mom may encourage a simplistic understanding of eating disorders, it might also encourage schools to prevent their students from making each other miserable.

Image from the Highmark Foundation, via The Inspiration Room.

Mom Sues Over Daughter's Anorexia [UPI.com]
Mom: My Daughter Was Bullied Into Anorexia [AP, via CBS]
Cause Vs. Trigger [ED Bites]

• In efforts to better understand the causes of anorexia, scientists are using new imaging technology to study the brains of anorexic patients. They have found patterns of dysfunction in certain neural circuits of the brain, which they believe may be related to the onset of the disease. • A UK radio commercial for sausage that asked listeners to reveal "where you like to stick yours" has come under fire for the "offensive" sexual innuendo. Another line from the ad is even more explicit: "Think about all the things you can stick this tasty, extraordinarily large sausage in." • Farmers in eastern India have discovered a new way of dealing with the shortage of rain: Roping their unmarried daughters into plowing the fields while nude. "They (villagers) believe their acts would get the weather gods badly embarrassed, who in turn would ensure bumper crops by sending rains," said Upendra Kumar, a village council official, which still does not explain why it has to be naked girls doing all the work. • Katrina Vanden Heuvel disagrees with Feminist Majority Foundation President Ellie Smeal and thinks withdrawing our military from Afghanistan would be best for women and children there. • Women in Herat, Afghanistan are increasingly likely to choose divorce over self-immolation, despite laws that all but automatically award custody to fathers. • In another slightly-less-than-entirely-depressing development, Afghan women are getting more midwives. • An Australian bus driver attempted to force a woman wearing a niqab to remove it to get on the bus. • But the Japanese want to make sure you're smiling on the trains. • Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been caught on tape admitting that it takes him forever to have an orgasm and advising a sex worker to masturbate more. La dolce vita, indeed. • Australian men are really, really, really concerned that they have small penises. • Borders Group has announced plans to expand their teen department, which will include various merchandise in addition to young adult fiction. Kathryn Popoff, vice president of merchandising, said that they have noticed more adults browsing in the teen section. • A woman who pimped out a mentally ill woman received a 20 year sentence. • A mother in Florida is suing because her kids learned an African-American spiritual, claiming she's upset because it has a religious theme. • If giant inflatable vaginas are your thing, we have a (NSFW) picture for you. • Some dickhead state representative in Ohio introduced a bill that has no chance of passing that would require a woman to receive the permission of the father of her embryo to consent to an abortion. And look! He got the publicity he wanted. • Congress introduced a decent common-ground-on-abortion bill, though, focusing on contraception and education. • According to the Center for Reproductive Rights, the number of doctors and clinics that provide abortions has fallen by 25% since the 1990s, and some states, such as Mississippi and North Dakota, have only one abortion provider. The study, UPI notes, was concluded before the murder of Dr. George Tiller. •

Maggie Baumann [pictured, with her two daughters] writes,

[F]or me, pregnancy was a nine-month battle in which I lived in a dissociated state from my body — horrified by my expanding "self" that protested every ounce of weight I gained.

I did not experience the freedom to eat for two; rather, I experienced the restriction of starving for two.

Disgusted by her (normal) weight gain of 33 lbs. in her first pregnancy, Baumann overexercised and restricted her eating during her second. As a result she only gained 18 lbs., experienced uterine bleeding and nearly miscarried. when her daughter was born, she suffered seizures, and later developed ADD — a doctor said poor prenatal nutrition could have been one cause of these problems.

Baumann says her eating disorder was triggered not by "thin celebrities," but likely by guilt over a previous abortion. Still, her experience highlights the problem with focusing too much on maternal weight gain. Everyone wants mothers and babies to be healthy, but gaining too little weight can be just as big a problem as gaining too much. Doctors recommendations need to be balanced to avoid adding to the huge stack of things pregnant women are already supposed to worry about, and — this part has been said before, but it can't be said enough — those of us who aren't doctors need to refrain from judging women on how much weight they gain.

During Pregnancy, Starving for Two [New York Times]
Pregorexia: Starving for Two [momlogic]
Less Weight Gain for Pregnant Women [New York Times]

Much of the book could certainly trigger a vulnerable reader. It tells the story of Lia, who spirals into anorexia and cutting after the death of her best friend Cassie, who was bulimic. Like many anorexics, Lia knows how many calories are in everything she eats, and her descriptions of her meals ("I eat ten raisins (16) and five almonds (35) and a green-bellied pear (121) (= 172)") could certainly serve as instruction and motivation for disordered eating. So could her reports of her steadily dropping weight and ever-lower goal, the pro-ana websites she visits (though, thankfully, Anderson doesn't include actual web addresses), and the tricks she uses to make her family think she's eating. Most disturbing, though, is the way Lia thinks about her illness and her recovery. Anderson writes,

[The doctors] are morons. This body has a different metabolism. This body hates dragging around the chains they wrapped around it. Proof? At 099.00 I think clearer, look better, feel stronger. When I reach the next goal, it will be all that, and more.

Goal number two is 095.00, the perfect point of balance. At 095.00, I will be pure. Light enough to walk with my head up, meaty enough to fool everyone. And 095.00, I will have the strength to stay in control.

At 090.00, I will soar. That's Goal Number Three.

To the non-sufferer, this thinking is distorted and scary, but to anyone with a tendency toward anorexia, it may sound all too reasonable. Lia's thoughts about herself may be far more triggering than her calorie-counting or meal-avoiding strategies — they may convince girls that their own disordered thoughts are normal or even correct.

Some have argued that the book's triggering qualities are mitigated by how terrifying its portrayal of anorexia and bulimia is. Jack Martin of the New York Public Library told the Times, "It's so horrific I don't think anybody would pick this book up and consider it a manual." It's true that the manner of Cassie's death — a ruptured esophagus caused by her bulimia — is incredibly disturbing, and that the deeper Lia descends into anorexia and cutting the more she feels self-loathing rather than strength. But a Times commenter says, "it doesn't matter if you describe the 'horrors.' i'll read right past it and go for what i want," and this may be true for many sufferers.

The real reason Wintergirls is a worthwhile book isn't that it will scare people away from eating disorders — it might do the opposite. It's that Anderson offers insight into a difficult subject, one that is much-discussed but frequently misunderstood. Especially strong is her treatment of Lia's family. While at first it's tempting to think that Lia's parents' divorce "caused" her eating disorder, the book ultimately resists such easy conclusions. Lia's mother, father, stepmother, and stepsister all come across as complex characters who influence Lia for both good and bad, and whose relationships with Lia will all be important as she begins her recovery. Anderson renders anorexia as a complicated disease with many interrelated causes, but she also emphasizes the importance of family in Lia's treatment — both these messages are worth sharing.

Cynthia M. Bulik, director of an eating disorder program, may have the best take on the book. She told the Times, "Books such as these should be read with careful parental supervision. In the best of all possible worlds, this could be a conversation starter between parents and teens rather than a dark world that teens enter alone reading the book in isolation." Read without discussion or supervision, Wintergirls could indeed be triggering. But read as part of a conversation — or, perhaps, read by parents and other family members — the book could help make some teens' worlds a little less dark.

Wintergirls [Amazon]
The Troubling Allure of Eating-Disorder Books [New York Times]
Skin and Bone [New York Times]

Earlier: Are Teen Girls Really That Fragile?

I was waiting for Tyra to address the change in London's appearance, particularly because it was a storyline during Cycle 12. It was certainly a missed opportunity to discuss the reality of EDs in the modeling industry, or if London being publicly called out previously had anything to do with her current change in appearance. But instead, Tyra just aired a segment in which London preaches about Jesus on the streets of NYC. Tyra also had all the girls wear bikinis, and then had "senior superlatives" applied to each contestant. First up:

Here's London, in the middle:

The ANTM finale airs tonight.

P.S. Thalia (aka the "burn survivor") is pregnant. She's 18, and only sorta-kinda with her boyfriend. The crowd cheered, and Tyra smiled. (But not with her eyes.)

Earlier: ANTM: One Model's "Huge" Physical Change Is Addressed

The study asked 81 women to choose their current and ideal body size from a series of silhouettes. Two thirds of the women said their current body size was their ideal. And 20% of obese women chose as their ideal an overweight or obese silhouette. The study didn't measure the women's cholesterol or blood pressure, but, in a confusing leap, UPI.com says the results show that "an extremely good body image can also take its toll on a woman's health." One of the study authors says, "So the question for doctors then becomes, 'How can we effectively treat our overweight and obese patients, when they don't feel they're in harm's way?'"

Maybe by not "treating" them at all? In an interview with Decca Aitkenhead of the Guardian, therapist and Fat Is A Feminist Issue author Susie Orbach says we've become so separated from our own bodies that we don't even know what they need anymore. Aitkenhead paraphrases:

The simultaneous rise of anorexia and obesity is not a paradox, but rather two sides of the same psychological coin - both manifestations of our panic about hunger, in which normal appetite becomes pathologised as the enemy.

Even worse, says Orbach, we have a kind of dietary Stockholm syndrome, falling in love with society's drive for bodily perfection and even accepting it as our own. She writes,

We transform the sense of being criticised by becoming the moving and enthusiastic actor in our own self-improvement programme. We will eagerly repair what is wrong ... We see ourselves as agents, not victims. It is the individual woman who feels herself to be at fault for not matching up to the current imagery ... She applies herself to the job of perfecting that image for herself and so makes it her own, not assaultive or alien.

The way women often moralize food choices and describe dieting as "taking control of their lives" bears this theory out. But once we've so deeply internalized society's criticisms, how can we fix the problem? Interestingly, Orbach doesn't think we should get rid of the idea of beauty altogether. She says,

Maybe this is too pragmatic but we live in this world, we have got the democratisation of beauty, we have got the notion that we can, should, enter into the representation of ourselves in certain kinds of ways. We're going to do that. So the question is, can we do it and have joy about this, rather than only regarding ourselves critically.

Here Orbach deftly defines the line that many contemporary feminists try to walk, between accepting constricting beauty standards and creating their own fun and fulfilling expressions of beauty. The latter is difficult, but Orbach thinks it's possible, as long as we start early (even in the womb, by reaching pregnant women), and teach people to listen to their bodies' needs rather than outside messages of criticism. If everyone refocused on nourishing the body and giving it what it needs to survive, perhaps we'd have not only few were eating disorders, but fewer journalists telling us that good body image is a bad thing.

Good Body Image Can Take Health Toll [UPI.com]
The G2 Interview: Susie Orbach [Guardian]

Merkin has been in the news lately for her involvement with the Madoff scandal (her brother funneled money into Madoff's scheme), but her essay, "A Journey Through Darkness," covers more personal territory. She says she feels "as if in exiting the womb I was enveloped in a gray and itchy wool blanket instead of a soft, pastel-colored bunting," and that she was first hospitalized at age ten "because I cried all the time." The recent bout of depression that forms the focus of her essay was so severe that she not only lost thirty pounds but developed psychomotor retardation, moving slowly and speaking in a flat voice.

As obvious as these symptoms seem, Merkin was frustrated with how un-obvious her disease was. She writes,

The real question was why no one ever seemed to figure this grim scenario out on her own, just by looking at you. This was enraging in and of itself - the fact that severe depression, much as it might be treated as an illness, didn't send out clear signals for others to pick up on; it did its deadly dismantling work under cover of normalcy. The psychological pain was agonizing, but there was no way of proving it, no bleeding wounds to point to.

Because it lacks "bleeding wounds," Merkin feels, her illness doesn't seem real — even in comparison with other mental illnesses. Of the anorexia sufferers at her hospital, she writes,

They were clearly and poignantly victims of a culture that said you were too fat if you weren't too thin and had taken this message to heart. No one could blame them for their condition or view it as a moral failure, which was what I suspected even the nurses of doing about us depressed patients. In the eyes of the world, they were suffering from a disease, and we were suffering from being intractably and disconsolately - and some might say self-indulgently - ourselves.

But, as Carrie of ED Bites points out, "people with eating disorders are blamed for their illness, when it is even seen as an illness. Eating disorders are generally seen as some sort of failure—if not the sufferer, then clearly her parents." It's tempting to judge Merkin for assuming the anorexics have it easier, but one of the saddest things about the essay is how her illness isolates her even from other mental health patients, how she constructs a moral hierarchy of disease and puts herself at the bottom. The unfortunate reality is that, in society's moral hierarchy, all mental illness still lies at the bottom, too often ignored or dismissed as self-indulgence. This is changing, but Merkin's piece shows how deep the stigma still goes, and how difficult it is for those stigmatized to advocate for themselves — especially when their disease makes them feel that they are "a failure. A burden. Useless. Worse than useless: worthless." While Merkin's envy certainly seems misplaced, the blame for this belongs not with her but with her disease — and with the society that sometimes fails to recognize how real and serious this disease is.

A Journey Through Darkness [New York Times]
A Journey Through Darkness [ED Bites]

In the clip at left, Naumoska says she flew all the way from Australia to appear on GMA because she wants to defend all the slender people who are victimized by what Sawyer calls "skinnyism." Naumoska explains, "I think that a role model shouldn't be judged by their appearance but rather by their actions or their lifestyle." Obviously, it's hypocritical for someone who was being ranked based on how she looks in a swimsuit to complain that people shouldn't be judged by their appearance. However, whether Naumoska is healthy or not, Sawyer holding a plate up to the camera so America could analyze exactly what she puts in her mouth made our skin crawl.

Earlier: Outraged Aussies Say Miss Universe Contestant Is "Skin And Bones"

Stephanie Naumoska, 19, was one of 32 women competing in the pageant on Wednesday. Naumoska is 5'11 and weighs 108 pounds, which means her BMI is 15, reports Reuters. The Australian Medical Association is calling for the contest to impose a minimum BMI cut-off of 20. But pageant director Deborah Miller claims Naumoska has a "Macedonian body type," which accounts for her thinness. "They have long, lithe bodies and small bones. It is their body type, just like Asian girls tend to be small," Miller said. Nutritionist Susie Burrell insists that there is no such thing as a "Macedonian body type," saying, 'There is no evidence published anywhere to back up that assertion."

Naumoska was eliminated from the competition last night after appearing in a red string bikini in the swimsuit competition. She said she's very hurt and upset by the controversy, according to The Daily Mail. She said:

'I think that it's horrible... they don't know me, and they don't know what I eat every morning or for lunch or dinner,' she told Australia's Channel Nine.

'They probably think that I don't eat anything, but I do.

'I also think that it's very unfair just to all the other girls out there who have the same body as myself.'

The newly crowned Miss Universe Australia, Rachael Finch, is defending Naumoska, reports News.com.au. "It has been a little overwhelming but I've been saying that Steph is an amazingly nice girl who happens to have a thin figure," she said. "Some girls are just naturally thin and Stephanie is exactly that."

Finch added that she is writing a book for girls who want to build a career in modeling that will emphasize healthy eating. She will compete in the Miss Universe world finals in August.

Miss Universe Australia In "Skinny" Controversy [Reuters]
'Malnourished' Miss Universe Finalist Who Is Just 'Skin And Bones' [The Daily Mail]
New Miss Universe Australia Stands Up For Skinny Stephanie [News.com.au]

Ok!
"Real Sizes Revealed."
Guess what? Most stars are thin! Between a size 0 and size 4. The highest dress size number on this spread is a 6/8: Mariah Carey. Brooke Shields wears a jean size 29. Really hard-hitting stuff. Moving on: Jessica Biel is threatening to break up with Justin Timberlake; she was overheard saying on a phone, "I'm sick and tired of his bullshit." Although she could have been talking about her agent, or a dog. Anyway, Justin "craves guy time" and is "constantly flirting." There are two pages on Bethenny from Real Housewives, who wears a bikini and talks about her diet book. Lastly, Tim Gunn is photographed with his pants down (Fig 1). It's sort of adorable, and due to his avuncular demeanor, it's also sort of weird. He says: "I haven't been on a date in 26 years." Awww. But then he says: "It might sound selfish, but I am very happy being alone."
Grade: F, upgraded to F+ for Tim Gunn (broken locks)

Life & Style
"Thin By Summer!" Margaret skipped this story but did see pictures of chicken on a plate and a person working out, so she deduces that much like ALL OTHER diet stories, this one advocates eating healthy and exercising. Moving on: "Lindsay's Back To Boys," since she hooked up with some dude named Chris Jepson at a house party in L.A. He works as a manager at Bungalow 8 in London. At the party in Hollywood, the two "disappeared into the bathroom" for 45 minutes. People were knocking on the door! LL reportedly told Mel B. that she's "back on men." The mag asks, "was she ever really into girls in the first place?" A psychologist who does not treat her explains that bisexuality means you can sometimes like dudes and sometimes like chicks. Jennifer Aniston is "holed up in her hotel" in NY because she's afraid of running into Angelina Jolie on the street or in restaurants. The mag copy reads: "Making matters worse, Jen was still dating John Mayer at the Oscars, but now she's single, and running into Angie would only rub salt in her wounds." Also in the article: "The bottom line is, she's pretty lonely." A four page story addresses the burning question: "Is Robert [Pattinson] The Sexiest Man On Earth?" There are diagrams, quotes and arrows pointing to the sparkly vampire's "soulful eyes." 90210 star Kellan Lutz says: "Rob is Edward. He's so complicated, so poetic, so sensual." What else? In a two page interview with Real Housewives Jill Zarin about her breast-reduction surgery, she says "I wanted to go public with my story to show women that there is no shame in wanting to look and feel your best, as long as it's done safely." Bless you! This week in Dr. Rey's Casebook, it's "Who Has The Best Hands In Hollywood?" Rosario Dawson, 29, has "flawless, young-looking" hands. Dr. Rey says, "She probably uses a good skin cream, like Dr. Rey's Well-In-Hand." And, in a horrifying display of Frankenstein-like Photoshop, Sarah Jessica Parker is given Reese Witherspoon's hands (Fig 2).
Grade: D- (missing knob)

Star
"Rehab For Tori!" Candy Spelling says she'd be willing to pay for Tori to get treatment for anorexia. Tori has said that she is not anorexic, but that, like many busy moms, she tends to just pick food off the plate of her kid. The mag adds up the value of bits and scraps of food and comes up with 130 calories. A nutritionist who does not treat her says "If Tori is only eating 130 calories, then she is definitely not consuming enough." Really? Jessica Biel and Justin Timberlake are "drifting apart." Jess wants to get hitched and start a family; Justin likes things the way they are. Someone overheard Alicia Silverstone talking to Amy Heckerling and so there might be a sequel to Clueless. Blind item: "Which TV starlet is really on the rebound? She's got a new body, a new gig and even a new guy. The only problem is, he's married. She makes a show of partying solo as a distraction." Moving on: John Mayer is dating a model, Scheana Marie Jancan. There are six pages of "Stars Without Makeup" and bitchy blurbs like this: "When Miley goes out minus her red carpet war paint, she looks just as blotchy and unkempt as the average teenage girl." Britney and Kevin had a "talk" about having more babies together. Her idea. She's "seriously considering" their future together. She wants to have more kids before she gets too old so she can "relate" to them. In Brad and Angelina news, when he came back from France, he brought home an antique rocking chair and a Cartier ring for Angie: "Pre-push presents." Rihanna's best friend Melissa never liked Chris Brown and was the one who urged RiRi to stay away. But! She also urged Rihanna not to appear on Oprah and talk about domestic violence. Lastly: Star uses its art department muscle and creates a photo composite of what Susah Boyle would look like if she had a makeover [Fig 3].
Grade: D (rusted, squeaky hinges)

Us
"We're Having Baby No. 4"
Heidi Klum and Seal are expecting! Do they want a girl? "We would be happy with either, but it would be a lie if I said we all weren't hoping for a little girl. Especially Leni, because she would love to have a little sister." Also, Heidi says of Seal: "I knew right away he was my dream husband." There are six pages of awesome quotes and pictures and info about how the kids wear hand-me-downs. Next: "Would You Let Chris Brown Hold Your Baby?" Well, 67% of readers said No [Fig. 4]. Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal went to Coachella and were spotted hugging and singing along to the music, yawn. Lastly, you may not know this, but Beyoncé, Amy Winehouse and Juliette Lewis consider Urkel fashion inspiration [Fig 5].
Grade: D+ (high threshold)

In Touch
"Brad Moves Out." This cover is not to be confused with last August's "Brad Storms Out" or May 2008's "Brad Walks Away." [Fig. 6] This particular story is vague about what Angelina and Brad were fighting about, and the fact that he left the house and went to France to check on renovations — and then came back — proves nothing. Also inside: In a picture of Mariah Carey looking curvy, a trainer who does not work with her estimates that she weighs 175 lbs. An insider says "She is going crazy trying to slim down. She looks at old pictures and compares her weight and talks about her body nonstop." Sounds healthy! Also, Oprah's straight hair is making her look thinner. Another fake wedding for Heidi and Spencer? It's supposed to happen this weekend in Pasadena. A source says, "It's just a plot line, they're not really getting married." It's happening in a church that's also a "closed set" and The Hills cast will attend. The producers want Lauren to "do something dramatic." A "pal" says of Speidi, "They would have a fake baby if people would watch them on TV." Did you know that Gavin Rossdale had a relationship with a dude in the past? The gentleman in question is a rocker known as Marilyn [Fig. 7]. Marilyn says of Gavin: "He was the love of my life. We were together 5 years, but it felt like 40." Then there are a smattering of pictures Marilyn looking like Gwen Stefani [Fig. 8] Evidence points to the fact that Gavin and Marilyn are friends. Katie Holmes is one step closer to her "baby dream" because there is a picture of her holding her stomach. In Nadya Suleman news, the mother of octuplets was indeed a stripper for at least a year in her early 20s and "enjoyed the experience a lot." She got fired from some bar because she kept breaking the "no touching" rule. But! Before that, she did private parties and was known as "the closer," the one who would do "special favors" for the men — beyond lap dancing or even touching. The mag prints a signed contract from the club, and — get this — Suleman's stripper name was Angelina. Next: Kevin Federline might get paid to lose weight, as he's been offered a deal with NutriSystem. Jennifer Love Hewitt says, "I always takes bubble baths wearing a tiara. I am a grown-up who bathes in a tiara! One that I got from Disneyland." Lastly, how do you top pictures of horses with hairdos [Fig. 9]? All in all, good stuff, except for the stoopid fake cover story.
Grade: C (ripped screen)

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Fig. 9

Denis Campbell of the Guardian brings us the good news: a study set to be released at the Institute of Education in London later this week proposes that people who struggle with anorexia may be predisposed to do so due to an abnormal brain development in the womb. "Our research shows that certain kids' brains develop in such a way that makes them more vulnerable to the more commonly-known risk factors for eating disorders, such as the size-zero debate, media representations of very skinny women and bad parents," says Ian Frampton, who helped to lead the study.

In other words, while all of us are exposed to societal and media pressures to lose weight and stay thin, women whose brains developed a bit differently in the womb are more likely to internalize these pressures in the form of an eating disorder. Frampton notes that the brain abnormality is not the result of "poor maternal diet or environmental factors, such as widespread use of chemicals," but rather of the same type of "imperfect wiring" that causes such disorders as ADHD and dyslexia.

The reason this is such a significant discovery is that it opens up the doors to a whole new means of treating anorexia: ""These findings could help us to understand this beguiling disease that we don't know how to treat," Frampton notes, "Arguments that social factors such as girls feeling under pressure to lose weight in order to look like high-profile women in the media contain logical flaws because almost everyone is exposed to them, yet only a small percentage of young people get anorexia.Those things are important but there must be other factors, involving genetics and science, that make some young people much more vulnerable than others."

On a personal note, this is incredibly encouraging news: too often, the treatment of anorexia gets boiled down to "if you just eat, you'll be fine" by those who do not understand the true nature of the illness. When I was hospitalized, in 2003, the doctors at my hospital were pursuing the possibility of a genetic cause for the illness: some of us may be born predisposed to eating disorders, and for whatever reason, a catalyst sets the illness off, much like an alcoholic does not realize they are an alcoholic until they take their first drink...and can't stop drinking.

The notion that the illness is, in fact, a brain abnormality as opposed to, as the public often feels, a series of bad choices leading to bad health, is encouraging in that it opens the door to more research, better methods of treatment, and even the possibility that anorexia could be treated with specific meds, much like ADD is treated with Adderall or Ritalin.

And also, as Susan Ringwood of Beat, an ED charity, tells the Guardian: "And it will help parents understand that they aren't to blame. Parents always blame themselves when their child develops an eating disorder. But what we are learning more and more from research in this area is that some people are very vulnerable to anorexia and that is down to genetic factors and brain chemistry, and not them trying to look like celebrity models or suffering a major traumatic event early in their lives." Amen.

For those of us who struggle/struggled with eating disorders, news like this is not only encouragement that the scientific community is taking the illness seriously, but hope that for future generations of both men and women, the illness can be stopped before it takes over.

Anorexia Risk 'Could Be Predicted' [Guardian]

Almost five years ago, Katja Eichbaum, then 33, opened the restaurant Sehnsucht ("Longing") in Berlin with money loaned by her father. Eichbaum had struggled with anorexia and bulimia for over ten years; in a piece for NPR by reporter Emily Harris, she freely admits that running the restaurant is a therapeutic enterprise for her. And for the many staff members, including the chef, who are at various points in their own recoveries from eating disorders.

Eichbaum's idea is to normalize food, and to make the serving and consumption of food non-threatening to ED sufferers. "I have very normal food on the menu. Girls should take this kind of eating into their normal routine and stop depending on carrots or nibbling on the garnish at the edge of the plate," says Eichbaum. All of the menu items are given allegorical names (a rhubarb and vanilla dessert is called "Mixed Feelings," a rack of lamb is called "Ravenous") so that none of the customers has to dwell on the idea of food when ordering. But the dishes themselves are, apparently, simple and delicious. "We offer lamb curry, duck breast in orange sauce, very, very tasty things. They don't have to be afraid because the portions are normal. They don't overeat, and it's not too little, either." (Of course, you can order the Thieves Platter, €0, which is an empty plate and a set of cutlery, to allow anyone who doesn't want to order their own meal to poach from the dishes of their fellow diners.)

Sehnsucht is located across the street from a day center for people with eating disorders, and Eichbaum wants her restaurant to be a kind of low-key therapy for her patrons. "Girls will have no pressure to eat here," she says, "they can just drink tea. They'll have the chance to confide in someone here, I think...Maybe something like this would have helped me? I don't know, nothing like this existed." Partly to avoid stigma, and partly to attract other customers, nothing on the menu mentions the eating disorder focus.

A psychiatrist who treats patients with EDs quoted in the piece thinks the restaurant can be helpful, but only for people who've already come a long way towards recovery: "It also depends where you are with your problem....Some are really afraid of being observed, or stigmatized." Anyone who's seen an anorexic become an expert food stylist at the dinner table, pulverizing individual beans from the 1/3 serving of chili they've allotted themselves, or stripping the lobes off a broccoli stalk one by one, knows that not everyone with a problem might find Sehnsucht helpful; indeed, there's a danger that such an institution might actually enable certain sufferers. The last thing the world needs is another caloric-restriction anorexia-is-a-lifestyle pro-mia apologist; thankfully, it's absolutely not Sehnsucht's intention to normalize the disease, but to normalize the idea of being around food for its sufferers. Easing people who've had tortured relationships with food back into the pleasures of eating sounds like a great thing to me.

Painting, titled "Meat Painting II - In Memoriam René Magritte," by artist Adrian Henri, from here

Redux: German Eatery Caters To Anorexics [NPR]

Hensley, a PhD student who is clearly quite ill, claims that she's not talking to psychologists or psychiatrists because her intellect makes her incapable of treatment. "I am always one step ahead of them," Hensley says, "I know what they are thinking and how they think they will 'cure' me." Which, as any former anorexic can tell you, is complete and total bullshit. Everyone, when deeply, deeply sick, feels like they are too smart for treatment: the illness has taken over, and the ED voice will do anything to convince us to stay away from those who might want to pull us away from our obsession.

Yet the Daily Mail paints Hensley as a brilliant and tragic mind whose story is somehow different from the stories of millions of women out there suffering from eating disorders, describing her failing health, interviewing her desperate mother, and acting surprised that someone as bright as Hensley could fall victim to anorexia. It is just another in a series of disgusting media interviews with incredibly sick women; a freak show designed to shock readers with images of anorexic females and tales of the dark side of eating disorders.

My issue here is this: Vikki Hensley's story, much like the story of the anorexic twins, who Entertainment Tonight breathlessly followed around for years as if they were Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, is not designed to help anybody. Instead, it is designed to add a mysterious glamour to the illness, a n"Oh, isn't this awful? Let's post more shocking pictures" treatment that dehumanizes the victim and adds yet another misconception to the disease: that it is a peculiar "choice" that some women make, and not a serious mental illness.

Hensley's quotes are painfully familiar: she claims that she enjoys being mistaken for a young girl, and that her weight is a sign that she's "very good at dieting", which feeds her drive for perfectionism. She is, sadly, a textbook anorexic: everything she's said, I once said, as did the women who were hospitalized with me during my illness. We all thought we were too smart for treatment, we all strove for perfectionism, we all allowed the ED voice to speak on our behalf. Yet at some point, we recognized that our illness had taken control, and we took the steps to gain that control back.

Not so for Vikki Hensley, who, after attempts to go into recovery at a hospital, now keeps herself going with a caloric intake that "allows her to function 'normally.'" Hensley is still very sick: she has not had a period in years and still speaks only in the language of the illness, noting that "The thought of having a period makes me feel unclean, and while I want to have children, having periods isn't something I want to have to deal with. In my ideal world, I would only have a period when in the future I want children, not now." Her desperate need to return to a pre-pubescent state, where her body remains androgynous, is something many fellow anorexics are all too familiar with.

We are supposed to empathize with Hensley, and to a point, I do. But mostly, these types of articles piss me off more than anything else: Vikki Hensley is mentally ill, and on the path to death from her illness, yet the Daily Mail celebrates her willingness to barely squeak by in the name of her career, as if we should think she's some kind of hero for being able to juggle her anorexia and her coursework at the same time. I should clarify that my anger is not directed at Vikki, but rather her illness, which is leading her to believe that she's doing the right thing, and the Daily Mail for shamelessly trumpeting said illness. Nobody should be held up for being sick: this type of thing only validates her existence as "Vikki The Anorexic" instead of Vikki the Person, and sadly, every time we parade sick women around as tragic heroes, we are only feeding the illness and potentially egging them on toward their death.

It breaks my heart to read such things: Vikki's story and her words are things I've heard a million times, words I've used myself. Yet I was fortunate enough to escape the strange media fascination with the illness: nobody ever praised me for being mentally ill, or celebrated the fact that I had found a way to barely survive while continuing my "commitment" to anorexia. One can only hope that Vikki, sooner rather than later, will get the help she really needs. God knows she's not going to get it from exploitative articles like this.

Why I Starved Myself To Have The Body Of A 12-Year-Old [DailyMail]

Eric became obsessed with his calorie intake, not because of his fear of weight gain, but because he is obsessed with his body fat percentage. He wants to have a completely chiseled appearance, and is putting his family through hell in the process. What's interesting about how his disorder differs from our ideas of female anorexia is that some women tend to hide their lack of food consumption from their family, so as not to make anyone suspicious. Eric, on the other hand, involves his entire family in his strict diet, orders them to use separate silverware, hijacks portions of the fridge so that his food does not touch fattier foods, and forces his mother to cook according to his rules.

In related news, Reuters is reporting that more and more physically-active men are falling victim to disordered eating behaviors due to ideas that their athletic performance can be increased as their percentage of body fat decreases. ""Often he'll notice that he's getting faster and that his placement when he competes is getting higher and better," Dr. James L. Glazer tells the news agency. "That will change what is a good and a healthy dieting pattern into one that becomes a little problematic and dangerous."

Related: Eating Disorders May Be Rising Among Male Athletes [Reuters]

Earlier: Boy Anorexic Sheds Light On Girl Anorexics
Indie Rock Boys Have Weight Issues Too
And Then There Was Nothing: The Incredible Shrinking Male Model

Elan goes on:

Kaiser Chiefs singer Ricky Wilson has been at the receiving end of barbs about his weight…Richey Edwards and Kurt Cobain famously had issues of body dysmorphia and anorexia. And I'm sure I'm not the only one to be taken aback by recent press shots of a gaunt looking Brandon Flowers. It can surely only be a good thing that Caleb has highlighted this serious, and too often ignored, issue.

Silverchair frontman Daniel Johns and the Darkness singer Justin Hawkins have also publicly discussed their eating disorders.

I actually noticed the rampant emaciation of indie rock stars almost three years ago when I was working for Spin and going to shows all the time. "The boys in Ambulance LTD are nearly translucent they're so skinny; We Are Scientists are gangly like real scientists; Detachment Kit is bony as all get out. Is there a Y-chromosome gene that includes both thinness and guitar proficiency?" I wondered.

Obviously eating disorders are far more complex than just societal pressures, but being in a looks-focused industry can certainly exacerbate body insecurities that were there anyway. However, it's impossible to have gone to an indie rock concert in the past five or ten years and not notice that a certain skinniness was the romanicized male ideal.

Indie's Obsession With Skinny [Guardian]