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Eating disorders around the world; questions & answers

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Eating disorders around the world; questions & answers

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This photo was great to learn from because it showed the information based on worldwide statistics.

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This photo really interested me, because it really spoke volume of the situation, it has impacted woman to change their apperance that looking like a doll is what should be advertised when in reality it shouldn't.

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I found these commercials for helping woman fight this disease, to let other be aware that it's a death sentence if someoe doesn't seek for help.

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This article shows that even men suffer from anorexia and bulimia, not just woman.

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If you were to walk down the street and randomly pick people and ask them what kind of people they believe suffer from eating disorders, the majority would tell you that they believe it is an illness that is only relevant to teenage girls. Some people might be surprised to find out that older woman and even children suffer, but they would probably be shocked to find out that men also can fall victim to this terrible disorder. Why is that? It is because society is still very much in the dark about what eating disorders really are and why someone may develop one.

Thankfully, this is changing as more and more advocacy groups push for a proper understanding of eating disorders. Therapists and doctors are beginning to understand the importance of looking out for eating disorders in men and boys as well as girls and women. This is important, as it means that more people who are suffering from an eating disorder will get the treatment that they need.

Eating disorders are not a vanity issue, they are not about wanting to simply lose weight and they have a very complicated mental and behavioral progression. Despite the most obvious behavioral component to the disorder often being the sufferers changed behavior around food, this is just one of the symptoms and it is important to understand that food-related behaviors are not simply a result of wanting to be slim.

People that are suffering from anorexia or some form of an eating disorder can become very obsessed with counting calories and wanting to be thin, but this is a symptom of an underlying brain based disorder that has affected the way that they feel about food. The result of this is seen in their behaviors around food and eating.

Having said this, it should be easier to understand that men too can develop eating disorders. It is estimated that approximately 10% of eating disorder sufferers are men, but it is likely that this figure would be higher if more men came forward with their problem and if compulsive eaters were included in that figure. It is very difficult for men to reach out and ask for help because eating disorders are still very much considered a "women's disease". There is a lot of stigma that surrounds eating disorders for both men and women.

One type of eating disorder appears to affect men and boys at higher rates than it affects women and girls. This is called muscle dysmorphia, which is a pathological obsession with muscle building and extreme dieting. Follow this link to learn more about muscle dysmorphia.

Bulimic men are more likely to try and purge their bodies of unwanted calories by exercising compulsively, rather than by vomiting or laxative abuse. This can be disguised as simply a preference to stay in shape, so it often goes undetected. The truth is that the sufferer may be exercising compulsively because he feels he has to rid himself of the calories he consumed. Many men, like a lot of women, that have been overweight and started losing weight, were praised for the weight loss. For this reason, the behavior is positively reinforced and exercise can turn into something that is a dangerous obsession.

Many doctors currently do not understand eating disorders well enough to detect them until the sufferer is so very underweight that it is starkly obvious. For this reason doctors are often unlikely to suspect that a man or a boy has an eating disorder. Parents too are unlikely to recognize the signs. There is the story of one boy who went to see his doctor when his body weight was very low. The doctor told his parents "Boys do not get anorexia. He is just losing his baby fat". The young man was approximately 35 lbs. underweight at the time. Is is a sad but ever so prevalent example of how medical professionals can fail individuals. Doctors need to be better educated on many aspects of eating disorders. Thankfully, due to the advances in research and education on eating disorders, this situation is changing for the better and more men and boys are being correctly diagnosed with eating disorders.

Research shows that eating disorders in men are much like eating disorders in women. Medical treatment and re-feeding is often necessary in order to address any physical complications that have been caused by the disorder and to re-establish nutrition to the point that malnutrition is no longer a danger. Getting the sufferer back to a body weight which their body can survive at is possibly one of the most important aspects of recovery. Then nutritional education and counseling is relevant in order to help with developing healthful eating habits and menu planning. Treating eating disorders often requires a team of professionals and a multi-faceted approach.

If you are a man that is suffering with an eating disorder, it is important that you seek help. Not only is there is no shame in having an eating disorder, but avoiding seeking help could lead to long-term and very serious health complications. Read the treatment pages on this website and proactively seek out a professional experienced in treating eating disorders to help you into a stable recovery program.

If you are a parent of a boy that you suspect has an eating disorder it is important that you seek help for him immediately. Please look at the page on this website that is for parents and make sure that you find a treatment professional who is very experienced in treating eating disorders in children. Do not let any doctor tell you that boys do not get eating disorders, they do, and they can be treated.

The development of more eating disorder treatment programs for men might help more males to come forward. Additionally, there needs to be more education about eating disorders in males. Hopefully, with the increased public awareness of eating disorders in men, the already changing attitudes towards them will continue to change at a faster rate.
Sponsored Content:
Many eating disorder treatment facilities are unable to help men, but one that can is Aloria Health. They offer different levels of care depending on an individual's needs, to make sure you receive the right type of treatment. For a free assessment or to learn more about them, just follow this link to the Aloria Health Website.

You can follow these links to read personal stories of men with eating disorders, and why are men anorexic.
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Updated by Tabitha Farrar - 2014
Written by Colleen Thompson - 1997
Recommended Reading:
Becoming John: Anorexia's Not Just for Girls by John Evans

Boys Get Anorexia Too: Coping with Male Eating Disorders in the Family by Jenny Langley (Published by Paul Chapman Educational Publishing)

Please eat...: A mother's struggle to free her teenage son from anorexia by Beverly Mattocks

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If you were to walk down the street and randomly pick people and ask them what kind of people they believe suffer from eating disorders, the majority would tell you that they believe it is an illness that is only relevant to teenage girls.

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Korea neglects awareness on anorexic models

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Korea neglects awareness on anorexic models

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This article showed that even in other countries like Korea are having struggles with weight issues. Models are being asked to lose a certain amountof weight to be considered to walk the runway.

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By Kim Jae-heun

Seoul is competing to vie with world class fashion capitals such as Paris, New York and Milan. The 509.4 billion won ($467.68 million) project at Dongdaemun Design Plaza, which has been described as a Korean version of the Centre Pompidou or even an urban UFO, was designed by Zaha Hadid and opened in March 2014. It immediately became one of the most coveted places for fashion aficionados in Seoul, hosting the city's biannual fashion week and many other events.

Despite the city's ongoing endeavor to gain a bigger presence on the international fashion scene, it lacks awareness of an important issue in the fashion industry _ protecting young models who are being forced into being too skinny.

It is an open secret that Korean models diet to the extreme to get an opportunity to stride down the catwalk. One former model, only identified by her surname Hwang, 28, said, "When I started modeling in my early 20s, I was 172 centimeters tall and weighed 50 kilograms, but I was told to shed four more kilograms. Short models like me had to stay a little over the mid-40 kilogram range in terms of weight.

"I literally survived on one potato and few pieces of carrots a day to lose weight for measurement tests every week at a model academy. I was desperate to make my debut and I would starve until my hands shook because my weight would decide whether I could sign my contract with the agency or not," said Hwang.

Fasting is no exception for teenage models that are still growing and require a balanced diet. At the 2015 Seoul Fall Winter Fashion Week in late March, a model as young as a 14 walked on the runways, and is likely to have gone through a similar fasting process at their agencies, before being cast in the show.

"I know a 15 year-old model, who was 55 kilograms at 175 centimeters in height. She was scolded for being fat all the time," said Hwang.

Change of perception

From the mid-2000s, the world has been paying attention to the fashion industry giving the wrong idea that skinny models are the ideal beauty standard and influencing young women to suffer anorexia ― an eating disorder characterized by excessive weight loss.

Spain was one of the first countries to ban ultrathin models from modeling. It also restricted women with a BMI under 18 from participating in fashion shows like Pasarela Cibeles in 2006 after two young Uruguayan siblings starved to death while fasting.

The movement was soon followed by other top-level fashion industry events. A law introduced in Israel in 2013 prohibits skinny models from appearing in commercials and restricts retouching the photos of models in advertisements to look thinner.
European countries such as Italy and Germany joined a global push to discourage young models with anorexia and encourage a campaign to not use women who are underweight.

The French lower house of Parliament passed an amendment to forbid models under the suggested body mass index (BMI) from working earlier this month. The exact criterion has not been set, but the World Health Organization recommends a BMI of 18.5, which means a model has to be at least 55 kilograms at 175 centimeters in height.

French lawmaker Olivier Veran, who is also a neurologist, presented the bill to prevent the growing number of female anorexia nervosa patients in France which totaled almost 40,000 by 2015.

However, Korea is still way behind the international trend concerning an ideal body image perception and ultrathin models, let alone making legislation. When The Korea Times questioned three related departments at the Ministry of Health and Welfare about this ongoing issue, all of them denied responsibility and suggested contacting each other.

"As far as I know, we have no law or regulations on the employment of skinny models," said an official from the Division of Public Relations Planning. "The welfare system for models in Korea is not as developed as the French."

The president of Korea Model Association Yang Eui-sig supported the idea of the French bill.

"Designers are making dresses too small for models to fit in them. If fashion designers adjust the sample size, the problem can easily be solved," Yang said. "Models change along with the industry. Society also has to change its perception on beauty standards."

However, the BMI level is not the best way to help unhealthily thin models. Some health researchers doubt the regulation's efficiency and the BMI's accuracy as the standard to tell whether models are healthy enough to get a job or not.

"The BMI has limitations on measuring the amount of muscle or body fat," said Ku, a researcher of the Korea Health Promotion Foundation. "The BMI results can differ greatly according to a person's height, so it does not apply the same way for everybody.

"For example, athletes usually have a high volume of muscle with low body fat and have an abnormally high BMI, while an old man with less muscle with higher body fat can result in a normal BMI," said Ku.

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Korea neglects awareness on anorexic models

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Seoul is competing to vie with world class fashion capitals such as Paris, New York and Milan. The 509.4 billion won ($467.68 million) project at Dongdaemun Design Plaza, which has been described as a Korean version of the Centre Pompidou or even an urban UFO, was designed by Zaha Hadid and opened in March 2014.

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Eating disorders not only happen in our modern society but all parts of the world suffer from this mental illness, like this woman from Moscow, Russia.

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Extreme Anorexic Speaks Out About the Eating Disorder

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Extreme Anorexic Speaks Out About the Eating Disorder SUBSCRIBE: http://bit.ly/Oc61Hj Extreme anorexic Valeria Levitin weighs just four stone after battling with anorexia for years. The tragic 39-year-old anorexic who lives in Monaco says despite her appearance she gets fan mail from girls hoping to copy her extremely thin look.

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12 things you didn't know about eating disorders

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12 things you didn't know about eating disorders

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Buzzfeed, a popular social media outlet for everyone to connect with posted what you didnt now about eating disorders, I thought this was interesting because it not only talked about the struggles of having this disorders but who and what effects this type of mental illness things like sterotypes that only young white girls suffer from this is cliche and even people of colour have this disease as well. This was just the beginning.

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12 Things People Don't Understand About Eating Disorders

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An estimated 24 million people in the U.S. have eating disorders. This is a glimpse into what that means.

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Here's a video from Global, just here in Canada how anorexia has effected girls just as young eight years old.

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Eating disorders among young girls on the rise | Watch News Videos Online

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Watch Eating disorders among young girls on the rise Video Online, on GlobalNews.ca

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There are many disorders, like binge eating disorder and other specified eating disorders but the most common out of all are bulimia nervosa and anorexia nervosa. This consists of either eating a lot and purging or not eating anything at all.