Jezebel
loss of appetite
Posts Tagged “
Eating Disorders
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Dying To Be Thin
Janell Smith was hospitalized for an eating disorder which she battled for months and was left at 68 pounds and in need of a feeding tube to sustain herself. After a month of treatment, Janell's father claims that her insurance company, Magellan, discharged her prematurely, which resulted in Janell committing suicide a few days after her release. Her death was nearly five years ago but her father's case against the insurance company is still continuing. The insurance company claims that Janell discharged herself after they had said they planned to review her insurance case, and that she showed no signs of suicidal tendencies. The claims against Magellan and the fact that many insurance companies do not cover treatment for eating disorders may reveal the lack of understanding of the seriousness of eating disorders. Is it any coincidence that a disease not taken seriously is also most prevalent in young women? [ABC News]
the week that was
This Week Models Got Some Meat On Their Bones
- Whitney was the first "plus sized" contestant to win America's Next Top Model!
- Alexandra Michaels — a teen model who was sent home from Paris because she gained five pounds — spoke out against eating disorders in the modeling industry.
- Speaking of dressing up: Jezebel correspondent Emily Gould crashed a Stevie Nicks festival. There were wigs! And gays! And glitter!
- More good news for gays: it is now legal for them to get married in California.
- In other California legal news, Lori Drew got indicted.
- Even California girls should not wear this tacky crap from Urban Outfitters.
- Brats from My Super Sweet Sixteen get deported!
annals of anorexia
Again, Eating Disorders Are Not Just For Teens
This is Rosemary Pope. She died last month at the age of 49 because her anorexia caused her heart to shrink "to the size of a child's." Pope is not alone: as has been previously and recently reported, anorexia in women over 40 is on the rise. There are a number of theories as to why the number of grown up anorexics is going up. First off, many of these women suffered from anorexia as teens and twenty-somethings and never really recovered. Another possible reason is a growing awareness of the disease which causes more women to self-diagnose their eating disorder. Yet another reason, posits the Guardian, is "the increased pressure on older women to stay young. Surrounded by images of women such as Madonna, Teri Hatcher and Jane Fonda (who has admitted to suffering an eating disorder herself), women are exposed to increasingly unrealistic images of how they should look as they age and are working harder than ever to counter the effects of getting old." More »
little girls in pretty boxes
Former National Champion Says Girls Gymnastics Is Not All It's Chalked Up To Be
In 1986, when Jennifer Sey was 15, she lived on fruit and laxatives. She also won the U.S. National title in gymnastics. Sey has written a book about her experiences as a top-tier gymnast called Chalked Up: Inside Elite Gymnastics' Merciless Coaching, Overzealous Parents, Eating Disorders, and Elusive Olympic Dreams, which came out this week. In an interview with Salon, Sey discusses her experiences boarding at the Parkettes National Gymnastic Training Center under notoriously-brutal coaches Bill and Donna Strauss, who were hellbent on producing winners by "any means necessary." Sey's responses to interviewer Julia Wallace's questions are satisfyingly balanced — Sey points out that the coaches encouraged disordered-eating and dangerous training (and sometimes sexually abused their charges) but also acknowledges that "I was willing to take [the abuse] because I wanted to win." More »
Gnawing Problems
According to a study conducted by Self magazine and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 65% of American women — that's just about three out of four — between the ages of 25 and 45 have disordered eating behaviors. "Our survey found that these behaviors cut across racial and ethnic lines and are not limited to any one group," says Cynthia R. Bulik, Ph.D. Eating habits like banishing carbs and skipping meals may actually be symptoms of disordered eating, even though some women think they are normal. While 65% is a huge number, is it really surprising? Do you know a woman — a friend, mother, sister — who has never been on a diet? [Science Daily]
primal purges
Eating Disorders Officially More Of A Dude Thing Now
The revelation that former British Deputy Premier John Prescott was a raging bulimic who liked to wash five-course banquets down with a few cans of Carnation sweetened condensed milk, and a Big Mac takeout Lo Mein chaser reminded me of ...well, it reminded me how happy I am to have shaken some old habits because I was always terrible at puking, but it reminded me of a topic I have been wanting to discuss for awhile now: At Some Point Men Started Having Worse Eating Issues Than Us. From Prescott to this guy I know who just got one of those incomprehensibly huge book advances to write a memoir about his "andgoyny" i.e. manorexia to at least three out of four of my ex-boyfriends, eating disorders are officially a Dude Thing, and I'm glad we're coming to terms with this as a society because I am frankly sick of all those closeted manorexics thinking no one is onto them. More »
leftovers
Bad Economy = Teen Emo; Blogger Bitches Out Know-It-All Reader
• The recession is turning Juicy-wearing teens into emo kids! • An O.C. teen is in trouble over video of him tossing rabbits and a puppy into the air. • Speaking of pets, a new study reports that Americans' creature companions are full of dangerous chemicals. • Swedish scientists have found that people with good rhythm are the most intelligent. • Are eating disorders contagious? • A bill up for vote in South Carolina would require medical providers to ask pregnant women if they want to see want to view ultrasounds of their embryos before undergoing an abortion. • A blogger responds to nit-picky grammarians; bloggers everywhere rejoice.
Remember the new law passed in France to target those perpetuating pro-anorexia messages? Want to know what the fashion community thinks about it? They're super excited! (Not.) Says Didier Grumbach, president of the French Fashion Federation: "We'll see what happens if the law comes out, but I don't believe in it for one minute. We all agree there should be condemnation of any site encouraging anorexia, but... I think the Parliament has better things to do." [WWD, sub req'd]
annals of anorexia
France's Attempt To Ban "Inciting Thinness" Incites Jeers From Some
The lower house of French Parliament voted in favor of a bill today that outlawed "publicly inciting extreme thinness," reports the AP. What does "inciting thinness" even mean? Well the definition, according to law author Valery Boyer, is pretty vague. The new bill would allow judges to imprison or fine offenders almost $50,000 if found guilty of "inciting others to deprive themselves of food" to an "excessive" degree, says Boyer. The law is ostensibly targeted at magazines, advertisers and the fashion industry — but how can a judge definitively determine if someone has "incited" someone else into anorexia? Writer Devorah Lauter points out that there is not a one-to-one correlation between media images of extreme thinness and the onset of disordered eating. Marleen S. Williams, a psychology professor at BYU who researches the effect of media on anorexics, tells Lauter that this new proposed law is like "putting your finger in one hole in the dike, but there are other holes, and it's much more complex than that." More »
La Merde Et La Mode
Members of the French fashion industry signed a charter today promising to promote healthier body images among fashion models. The charter sets out guidelines but does not impose restrictions like those in Spain, where models are required to have a BMI of 18 to walk the runway. The guidelines are mostly centered around "awareness-raising" and "information sharing" about the pitfalls of "extreme thinness," but do little to promote actual steps towards the use of healthier-looking models. [AFP via Breitbart]
The Italian government is investing $1.5 million in an country-wide campaign against eating disorders. Says Giovanna Melandri, minister of youth and sports who is overseeing the campaign, "[What the government seeks to do is] to make sure young people, young girls and young boys, know that they can die" from eating disorders. Special efforts are being made to target the media, schools, and (no shocker to anyone who still has their Capezios) dance teachers. We wonder whether that the photo of a nude Carla Bruni somehow figures in to all of this. [San Francisco Chronicle]
clips
Sometimes It's Mom -- Not Media -- Who Gives Girls Eating Disorders
An episode of Intervention aired last night that featured a very sick family. Caylee is a 21-year-old who is addicted to heroin and cocaine, and also has had an eating disorder since she was a young girl. It seems as though the entire family blames her body issues on her mother Christy, who has suffered from various eating disorders of her own — a combination of anorexia, bulimia, and excessive exercise — for the past 35 years. When Caylee was about 8 years old, Christy let her know that she was getting pudgy and began policing the food she ate, guilting her into avoiding French fries, and instilling in her a fear of food and body fat that she's struggled with her entire life and turning her to hard drugs. The family arranged an intervention for her, but when interventionist Jeff VanVonderen got a load of Christy, he decided that she needed to be in treatment as well. Clip above.
Related: Parents In Denial About Children's Weight Problems [Science Daily]
Annals Of Anorexia
Bad news: The numbers of children with food and body image issues are on the rise, reports Fox News. 68% of elementary school teachers are concerned about eating disorders in their classes. 80% of preeteen girls are dieting. Those who diet are 8 times as likely to develop an eating disorder. 81% of ten year olds are afraid of becoming fat and over 50% of nine and ten year olds say they feel better when dieting. A treatment facility for women suffering from anorexia and bulimia opened a branch for girls under 13 two years ago and is seeing patients as young as seven years old. There's a lot of talk about the obesity epidemic in this country, but clearly there's also something else going on. [Fox News, 5 Resolutions]
Bad news: The numbers of children with food and body image issues are on the rise, reports Fox News. 68% of elementary school teachers are concerned about eating disorders in their classes. 80% of preeteen girls are dieting. Those who diet are 8 times as likely to develop an eating disorder. 81% of ten year olds are afraid of becoming fat and over 50% of nine and ten year olds say they feel better when dieting. A treatment facility for women suffering from anorexia and bulimia opened a branch for girls under 13 two years ago and is seeing patients as young as seven years old. There's a lot of talk about the obesity epidemic in this country, but clearly there's also something else going on. [Fox News, 5 Resolutions]
weighty issues
Author: Some Orthodox Men Want Their Brides Below A Size Eight
In some Orthodox Jewish sects, women must wear sleeves past the elbow and skirts (never trousers) past the knees. Slits are verboten (those are for harlots!): kick pleats need only apply. Married women must always cover their heads; most shave their hair off and wear wigs. You'd think with all this covering up, many would have a healthier body image. You'd think wrong! Jewcy.com points us to a Jewish Daily Forward article about anorexia and bulimia among some Orthodox women. According to the Forward, a possible reason for eating disorders amongst ultra-religious Jews is the practice of arranged marriage. "Very often, young men looking for brides in the Orthodox community call a girl's parents and ask for her dress size." If it's over a size 8, says the Forward, she may be headed for spinster city. More »
Part-Time Anorexia
Sure, fasting will make you drop those pounds in a flash but who has the time to develop an organ-destroying, starvation-based eating disorder? Well, now there is "alternate-day dieting", the "brainchild" of a plastic surgeon named James B. Johnson (because you want health tips from the guy who makes his living telling others what is wrong with their appearance). The diet works like this: eat whatever you want every other day, but on your "diet" day you should limit yourself to a protein shake for breakfast, a salad for lunch, and a soup for dinner, having a total of 300-500 calories. So basically, you starve yourself for half of the time and then binge the other half. Genius! Johnson's diet book, Alternate-Day Dieting comes out in April, sure to be a big hit with the "part-time" anorexic teens on Teen Vogue's messageboards! [Chicago Tribune, via Babble]
Sure, fasting will make you drop those pounds in a flash but who has the time to develop an organ-destroying, starvation-based eating disorder? Well, now there is "alternate-day dieting", the "brainchild" of a plastic surgeon named James B. Johnson (because you want health tips from the guy who makes his living telling others what is wrong with their appearance). The diet works like this: eat whatever you want every other day, but on your "diet" day you should limit yourself to a protein shake for breakfast, a salad for lunch, and a soup for dinner, having a total of 300-500 calories. So basically, you starve yourself for half of the time and then binge the other half. Genius! Johnson's diet book, Alternate-Day Dieting comes out in April, sure to be a big hit with the "part-time" anorexic teens on Teen Vogue's messageboards! [Chicago Tribune, via Babble]
annals of anorexia
Should Sites Like Facebook Ban Pro-Ana Internet Groups?
Happy National Eating Disorders Awareness Week! An eating disorder charity is calling on MySpace and Facebook to do something about pro-anorexia groups. "We believe that the sites should act responsibly," says Susan Ringwood of B-eat, an eating disorder charity. "They have acted to remove other content that is seen as 'dangerous', or could encourage young people to do dangerous things." Research shows that young women exposed to pro-ana websites feel more negative, have lower self-esteem and are more likely to compare their bodies with other women, reports BBC News. But a spokesperson for MySpace explains: "It's often very tricky to distinguish between support groups for users who are suffering from eating disorders and groups that might be termed as 'pro' anorexia or bulimia." More »
death camp chic
