What’s involved?
Blurred vision. Hair loss. Fainting spells. Kidney failure. Heart attack. Sound like a serious illness? It is. It's what can happen if you have anorexia or bulimia nervosa. Anyone can fall prey to an eating disorder, not just teenage girls. Some 80% of women and 45% of men say they're unhappy with their bodies (Williams, 2005). We can fight this with positive body image, promoting healthy eating and allowing each other to feel good about ourselves. Find out how you can make a difference.
Things to Do
- Compliment your friends on their talents or good deeds, not just on their physical appearance.
- Stop weighing yourself! Just eat healthy and exercise a little.
- Don't comment on your weight in front of children.
- Support organisations that are raising funds to prevent and treat eating disorders. Try the Eating Disorders Foundation in your state or The Butterfly Foundation.
- Write to companies that use the sex appeal of men or women's bodies to sell their products. Tell them they are reinforcing an unhealthy body image. Go to their websites and send an email.
- Chat to family and friends about the unrealistic expectations we have for our bodies and appearance.
- Write to magazines and tell them you don't want to see airbrushed photos of stick-thin women wearing hardly any clothes. Visit their websites and send them an email.
How do I know this?
Eating Disorders Foundation Inc., 2005
http://www.edsn.asn.au
Williams, J. 2005
50 Facts That Should Change The World, Icon Books, UK.
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