Archive for August, 2009

Won’t YOU Come Chat With Us?

 

The Center for Eating Disorders (CED) has now hosted five on-line support group chats – two for family members and friends of individuals struggling with eating disorders and three for the individuals themselves. Embarking on this new use of technology has been a bumpy ride for us and our users, some of whom have had difficulty getting into the chat-room and/or obtaining a login to do so. Oh, the joys of technology – it is wonderful – but only when it works! While we are still working out some of the kinks, if you would like to participate in a future chat, check out the system requirements in advance and turn off your pop-up blocker before trying to enter the chat room!

For those who have been able to get on-line with us, the technology has been well used. Chats have gone in a myriad of directions — one chat focused on the pressures of conformity and how much harder it is to not conform to what others are doing, but how much better it feels to go with your own values and convictions. Another chat led to a discussion about how to obtain treatment for an adolescent who did not think she was sick and how to best support a fiancée with an eating disorder.

Most recently, we had our most active chat to date! The participants discussed, among other things, recovery and “getting to the other side” of the illness. Individuals chatted about the frustrations associated with recovery, but the chat also led to a direction of hope in the journey. Helpful resources were discussed as well, including Jessica Weiner’s book, “Life Doesn’t Begin 5 Pounds From Now” and “Goodbye Ed, Hello Me”, the new book by Jenni Shaefer, who will be speaking at CED’s annual fall outreach event on October 25th at the Conference Center at Sheppard Pratt.

As the most recent chat progressed, the conversation led participants to discuss the dilemma of figuring out who they really are without their eating disorders and what their passion is in life.  Suggestions and ideas about helpful coping skills were also shared during this fast paced discussion.

SO, what might you bring to our next chat? Questions? Concerns? Insights? There is room for all of this and so much more! The next live chat support group is scheduled to take place on Thursday, September 3rd from 8:30 – 9:30 p.m. To participate in a live chat, you must first register with a username and password on CED’s online forum. This will allow you to access the discussion board where you will find the link to the chat 10-20 minutes before the chat is scheduled to begin.

We would love the chance to chat with you!!

If you have questions about how to join our live chat, or if you experience technical difficulties, please call or email Kate Clemmer at 410-427-3886, kclemmer@sheppardpratt.org or Sarah Blake at 410-427-3856, sblake@sheppardpratt.org.

photos courtesy of:

i.dailymail.co.uk, newsimg.bbc.co.uk & pc1news.com

Published by Sarah Blake
August 27th, 2009 in CED Events, Celebrity Topical News, Editor's Picks
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Confidence is Making a Comeback

 

 

After weeks of countering negative messages about body size and weight in the news, we are relieved to get a breath of fresh air today from model, Lizzi Miller.  Miller, who was interviewed by Matt Lauer this morning on the Today show, was featured in a rather revealing photo in Glamour magazine’s September issue.  What was so special about this photo?  Miller’s body beautifully represents the average American woman’s body; her belly was not erased, her thighs were not shrunken and yet, her confidence could not be contained!

Miller’s photo immediately elicited a positive response from women across the country, celebrating the experience of seeing themselves and their own bodies reflected within the pages of a magazine – finally!  While Matt Lauer continually refers to her as a “plus-size” model during the interview, we know that, more accurately, Miller’s size represents the average size of American women today.  She may be plus-confidence and plus-beauty but she is technically not plus-size.  The editor of Glamour magazine speculated that the positive response to Miller’s photo will motivate the magazine to include more and more real bodies and that this could have a long-lasting, positive effect on women’s self-esteem.  We sure hope so!

Read the Today show article or  Newsweek’s blog  about Miller’s photo.  Then join in the discussion on our CED Facebook page, and let us know what you think!  Will Glamour and other magazines actually start featuring a diversity of real women’s bodies given the recent positive feedback they’ve received from the Lizzi Miller photo shoot?

Photo courtesy of today.msnbc.msn.com

Published by Kate Clemmer
August 25th, 2009 in Celebrity Topical News
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Bogus Billboard: A Response to PETA’s Vegetarian Ad Campaign in Jacksonville

 

If we needed another reminder about the epidemic of size prejudice that exists in our society, we have one. A PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) billboard that went up in Jacksonville, Florida took aim at beachgoers’ insecurities about their bodies with a cartoon picture of a larger woman and a tagline that reads “Save the Whales” followed by “Lose the Blubber: Go Vegetarian”.  The billboard has already been called disrespectful, tasteless, mean-spirited, and cruel by Jacksonville residents, bloggers, feminists and others who are speaking out about the ad so we won’t waste time re-stating the obvious.  However, in addition to causing unnecessary humiliation and shame, we are deeply concerned about the billboard’s misguided message about using vegetarianism as a weight-loss method.　　　　

At The Center for Eating Disorders, we were very concerned about the possibility that PETA’s billboard could potentially sway many people, especially adolescents, into unnecessary or unsupervised attempts at becoming vegetarians based on faulty information that it is an effective way to lose weight.  As a result, our team of registered dietitians put together some more factual information about vegetarianism for our readers.　

  •  Adolescents and young adults who are struggling emotionally and have a negative body image may be drawn to vegetarianism as a means to lose weight and “fit in”.
  • The decision to stop eating meat, or any other food group, may be a warning sign of an underlying eating disorder; becoming a vegetarian gives someone a socially acceptable cover-up for restricting food which is a major symptom of anorexia nervosa. 
  • Overly restricted or inappropriately selected vegetarian diets can easily result in significant malnutrition, delayed growth spurt, iron deficiency anemia and Vitamin B12 deficiency which can lead to irreversible damage to the nervous system.  
  • Vitamin and mineral deficiencies due to a poorly maintained vegetarian diet can be particularly detrimental to the growth and development of children and adolescents and breastfed infants of vegetarian mothers.
  • Vegetarianism is NOT a weight loss tool!  Adhering to vegetarianism takes diligence, knowledge, professional nutritional guidance and an increased intake of other foods that contain the vitamins and nutrients your body needs but is not receiving from meat.  In fact, it can take a larger amount of non-meat foods to satisfy the daily nutritional requirements that meat would supply in smaller portions.

A significant association between vegetarianism and eating disorders has been highlighted in several studies:

  • Young vegetarians between the ages of 15 and 23 report more binge eating episodes than non-vegetarians; Binge eating disorder is more common in vegetarian teens than in the general teen population. (1)
  • Vegetarian teens were found to be 2x as likely to diet frequently, 4x as likely to diet intensively and 8x as likely to abuse laxatives. (2)
  • 20-25% of current and former vegetarians were found to be taking part in unhealthy weight control behoviors including taking diet pills, abusing laxatives and purging. (1)
  • College women who claimed to be vegetarians had a significantly greater risk of developing eating disorders than did those who ate meat. (1)
  • Vegetarian males made up an especially high risk group for unhealthy weight control practices. (1)

In summary, vegetarian does NOT automatically = healthy.  When done properly and for the right reasons, being a vegetarian can be an appropriate lifestyle, but there is not enough information to suggest that a diet which includes meat and is based on recommended guidelines is not equally as beneficial as vegetarianism.  Furthermore, it is important to be knowledgeable about the risks associated with being a vegetarian, specifically that it can be a red flag for an eating disorder. 

Parents who observe their child becoming a vegetarian and believe it may be stemming from a desire to lose weight or that it might be related to an eating disorder can call our admissions coordinators at (410) 938-5252 for more information.

Contributions by:  Hannah Huguenin, MS, RD, LDN and Courtney Perkins, RD, LDN

References

1. Robinson-O’Brien C, Perry CL, Wall MM, Story M, Neumark-Sztainer D: Adolescent and Young Adult Vegetarianism: Better Dietary Intake and Weight Outcomes but Increased Risk of Disordered Eating Behaviors. Journal of the American Dietetic Association 2009; 109(4):648-655

2.  Klopp SA, Heiss CJ & Smith HS. (1997). Self-reported vegetarianism may be a marker for college women at risk for disordered eating. Available at http://plaza.ufl.edu/chvaugha/Veggie%20paper.pdf

Published by Kate Clemmer
August 24th, 2009 in Body Image, Celebrity Topical News, Editor's Picks, In the News, Nutrition
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The Photoshop Storm Continues…

The Center for Eating Disorders’ most recent blog, Our Photoshop Culture, was posted on the brink of even more pressing Photoshop news.  Blogs and national morning shows spent the day debating a recent Self Magazine cover shot of Kelly Clarkson which was heavily retouched and altered. Despite the singer’s own testament within the magazine that she feels comfortable with her body and doesn’t worry about her weight, it appears the magazine editors felt differently and are defending their choice to alter Clarkson’s appearance on the cover.  What message is this sending to the magazine’s readers? Even if you love your body, we don’t!?

On the otherhand, magazine editors and advertising execs in the U.K. might not have the option to use Photoshop for much longer!  Recently, members of the British Parliament submitted a proposal that would ban the use of Photoshopping techniques on advertisements that target those under the age of 16.  The proposal also requests mandatory disclosures on all Photoshopped images which would require advertisers to divulge each digital alteration that is performed on a photo – whitened teeth, shrunken waist, tanned skin, airbrushed wrinkles, etc.

This proposal came in the wake of a controversy similar to the Kelly Clarkson malady but involved a British advertisement featuring former runway model, Twiggy.  When the ad appeared, it was clear that Twiggy had been sculpted, smoothed and perfected, not by the face cream she was promoting but by the Photoshop master in front of the computer screen.

Each of these Photoshop media storms (and the many that will surely follow) serves to highlight the lengths the media will go to in order to preserve the myth of the perfect  body and a goal that they know none of us can reach.  It is the maintenance of this goal by advertisers and media that ensures the masses will continue to spend billions of dollars on diet products, gym memberships, make-up, and plastic surgery.

However, as evidenced by the political movement in England, there is increasing public awareness and outrage over the media’s continued misrepresentation of real beauty.   People are learning that they no longer need to remain silent – that things CAN change. The Center for Eating Disorders encourages you to use this as a challenge and a teachable moment.  Consider this the perfect chance to talk to friends, neighbors, children and parents, young and old, about the reality behind these media images.  Start the conversation today and let us know how it goes!  Join in the discussion on our Facebook Page.

photos courtesy of people.com and bellasugar.com

Published by Kate Clemmer
August 17th, 2009 in Celebrity Topical News
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Our Photoshop Culture

 

Being a “critical viewer of the media” includes building up your resistance to negative body image messages projected by magazines, billboards, television – all forms of media.  Seeing the truth behind these messages, and being aware that things are not always as they seem in pictures, is part of this critical viewing process.   For parents, it is particularly important to talk to your kids about how magazine covers and other media outlets don’t actually portray real bodies.  Recently, the LA Times published an article which highlights our cultural obsession with Photoshop and how it is constantly used by the media to create an unrealistic definition of beauty and perfection.  Read the LA Times article , Photoshopped images: the good, the bad and the ugly, and then join in a discussion about it on our Facebook page or our discussion board.

Above image courtesy of blogocrats.files.wordpress.com

Published by Kate Clemmer
August 12th, 2009 in Body Image, Celebrity Topical News, Glossary Definitions, In the News
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Just A Game?

Video games are no stranger to controversy, but it’s usually a result of their excessive use of violence, weapons and blood that earns them the titles of inappropriate and offensive.  The introduction of a new Playstation game last week warrants similar attention and outrage but for different reasons.  The game, entitled “Fat Princess: Fistful of Cake”, urges gamers to overcome enemies and obstacles in order to find cake which they then feed to the princess.  With each slice they feed her, the princess gains a significant amount of weight and, as a result, is not able to be picked up and carried away by the “enemy”.

The real enemy in this case is the game itself and those who promote it.  This game explicitly supports size prejudice, encourages jokes and criticisms regarding weight and sends negative messages regarding body image.   Many of its supporters will claim, “it’s just a game!” but individuals who have struggled with body image concerns and disordered eating know all too well that it is not just a game.   Playstation’s “Fat Princess” is yet another indication of the prejudices and lack of acceptance which exist in our society. The Center for Eating Disorders supports all who choose not to purchase or play this game and who choose, instead, to celebrate body diversity.   

Share your thoughts about this topic on the Center for Eating Disorders Facebook page.

above photo courtesy of games.gearlive.com
 

Published by Kate Clemmer
August 5th, 2009 in Body Image, In the News
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Appreciate Your Ankles

Unfortunately, men and women have long criticized their bodies, picking apart their “flaws” and wishing for various changes and enhancements. A negative body image, and a desire to conform to society’s set standard of “beauty” can often contribute to the development of an eating disorder. Stomach, arms, nose, backside – all have taken the brunt of our unappreciative relationships with our bodies, but there appears to be a new contender.

 

Ankles (yes, ankles!) have been called out by a recent Wall Street Journal article as the newest focus for body-conscious Americans trying to change the way they look. And, of course, Hollywood and the fitness industry are cashing in. Society’s recent disdain for large ankles, or “cankles” as they are referred to in the article because of an alleged merging of the calf and ankle, has even elicited a campaign from Gold’s Gym which denoted July as “Cankles Awareness Month”. Is this for real? Are people really treating body diversity and normal physical differences as though they are a disease that people need to be made aware of?

Why not spend less time thinking about the size and shape of your ankles and more time doing things that matter and that will make you feel good about yourself? Volunteer at a local animal shelter, go for a stroll on the beach or take your neighbor’s kids to the playground. Once you decide what YOU want to do to feel good, remember to appreciate and celebrate your beautiful, strong and supportive ankles for carrying you there.

 

Above photo courtesy of airandwater.co.uk/

 

Published by Kate Clemmer
August 3rd, 2009 in Body Image
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