In contrast, as stated by the article many people fear being fat. People become obsessive compulsive about controlling what they eat and working out for obscene amounts of time in order to prevent themselves from gaining weight. This also is unhealthy since many people compare themselves to celebrities and models who have their bodies sculpted for them by professionals if they are not physically altered in pictures. This skew on how people perceive the ideal weight only contributes to the problem of people trying to lose weight because they will overachieve and lose more than what is actually healthy for their body type (thus leading to eating disorders).
As questioned in the article, who gets to determine what counts as fat? Many people do not take the time to consider who is setting the standards and whether they would actually be swayed by others' opinions. Recently many celebrities have acknowledged the problem that Hollywood images may portray to the younger audience and tried to steer those who are more impressionable in the right direction. The one that comes to mind is the new ad for Jenny Craig with Queen Latifah who says that she wants to lose weight in order prevent other diseases. I think that by addressing these problems earlier, less people will suffer from being obese as well as too skinny.
2 comments:
The notions of fat and skinny seem to be quite sensitive in our society, and I think that Alice does a great pointing this out. How are medical doctors and professionals supposed to guide Americans struggling with weight, along any point of the spectrum, when we have such a heterogenous population? Do we know enough about humans in a modern evolutionary sense that can help us to provide advice? Alice points out that there are so many diets that exist today, and it almost seems that none of them work or help people to psychologically or socially deal with their complex with weight. I am most interested by the new paleolithic diet that has become popular in the past years. I wonder what would happen if people started to eat a diet that we used to be adapted to when our ecologies have changed so much. Lastly, Alice points out the obsession that people have with becoming fat, and this makes me very fearful; the perception and actuality of weight can vary so greatly, especially among today's females.
I think that we need to focus more attention on trying to battle the issues that have arisen because of weight issues and their relation to gender.
Alice does a great job in pointing out the extremes that people go to to lose weight. There are so many diets that are out on the market right now that are all about quick fixes and not long term health. The creators of the diets claim that the long term effects will be increased health, but rapid weight loss has been shown to cause health problems. Also many of these diets are almost impossible to stick to. For example, the Atkins diet recommended that dieters stay away from all carbs including healthy ones such as those found in fruits and vegetables. That is not healthy or natural. But the worst part is that many doctors, nutrionists, and trainers suggest diets that are obviously unhealthy to their clients.
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