National Eating Disorder Awarness Week; What SHOULD We Be Aware Of?
By Lucia Nazzaro, co-host of Inside the Ladies Locker Room
We’ve all heard the words a million times, EATING DISORDERS. In health class, in college dorm meetings, at the gym, posters and referral guides tend to line the walls. With over 24 million Americans suffering from some sort of eating affliction, whether we know it or not, we all probably know someone that has or has had an eating disorder in the past. So if we have heard about them a million times, and we know they exist, it seems like awareness isn’t always the biggest issue. The real issue to me seems to be fixing the problem and coming up with solutions to heal this epidemic. Becoming more aware of the “WHY,” instead of the “WHAT,” is the first step in conquering this enormous problem our world is facing.
The “WHAT,” to me is clear, as a nation we are dying from eating disorders, anorexia, bulimia and the massive killer, binge eating. Now that most of us know these problems exists, the question is why is it happening and how can we fix it. According to a study done at Yale University, one of the main culprits is the media. We each see an estimated 400-700 advertisements a day containing mixed messages of anorexic sized models mixed with super sized bags of Doritos’s we are suppose to consume. The multiple messages are enough to drive a person crazy, and according to the study at Yale cause people who ere exposed to food advertisements while watching TV to eat 45% more than those who don’t see the ads. Whether we want to or not, we absorb everything that is shown by the media. Teenage girls are killing themselves to look like the girls they see in magazines, that are killing themselves to be in the magazine’s. Men and women are eating themselves to death, because of promises made by advertisers that if they eat a super sized meal their lives will be filled with super sized amounts of happiness. Advertisers selling lies and creating wants in our lives that are not real and we as consumers buy those lies.
There are many more “WHYS” when it comes to eating disorder. Many people have been victims of abuse, some are running from feelings they don’t want to feel or tragic life events they don’t want to face. Those are more difficult problems to solve, but this problem, the MEDIA and ADVERTISERS, should be easier to stop. Instead of letting the media dictate what is beautiful, why don’t WE dictate what is beautiful and let the media work for us, instead of us working for them. We as consumers need to demand that advertisers be more ethically aware of the problems they are causing in society. We put restrictions on tobacco companies because of the lies they sold us, why don’t we do the same with fashion and food companies? This epidemic is taking over the lives and bodies of millions of Americans, but this “WHY,” that is causing part of the problem is something we can help fix. The only question is “WHEN,” will we start doing it?
