Dr. Linda Mintle

Tag: dieting

  • Male Eating Disorders

    Not much media attention is given to men and eating disorders. One in ten males suffer.

    Not much media attention is given to men and eating disorders. One reason may be that these disorders are disproportionately female. In recent years, however, the number of males afflicted has risen from one in twenty, to about one in ten. Approximately one-third of adolescent boys report bingeing with food.

    Men, like women, are affected by cultural media stereotypes that promote a fit and buffed body as signs of attractiveness and success. But men are more concerned about their shape than weight. Men also are affected by other sociocultural factors such as the pressure of a demanding job market and the changing view of masculinity and gender roles.

    Exercise appears to be a common entrée into symptom development. Dieting plays a role related to playing sports, past obesity, gender identity conflicts, and avoidance of feared medical illness. Boys may begin to diet to lose a few pounds, exercise to lose more weight, and then refuse to eat normally. Exercise is usually the chosen route for weight loss.

    Like women, certain subgroups of men are more at risk. For example, male wrestles have a high proportion of eating disorders. In addition, men who develop eating disorders are more likely than women to have been obese.Clinical symptoms are similar with the obvious exception of amenorrhea.

    Onset of a male eating disorder can begin at preadolescence, adolescence and young adulthood, or adulthood. Men benefit greatly from treatment and are often happy to find someone who appreciates their concerns. They typically have more alcohol related problems and obsessional thinking than female eating disorders. Female eating disorders are more afflicted with mood disorders in addition to eating problems.

    Why are these disorders more typically female? One thought is that males don’t diet as often to control weight. In addition, males increase muscle during puberty and are less concerned about fat than girls. Males want to be bigger and taller. It also may be that eating disorders in males are under diagnosed and underreported since they are known as female disorders.

    Whatever the reasons, it is important to know that males do use food to cope with emotional difficulties. For more information about eating disorders in general, refer to other articles in this section.

  • Say NO to Cultural Pressure to be Thin

    It’s that dreaded moment. You slip off your shoes (that’s at least two pounds), your jacket (another pound), your watch (few ounces) and step on the scales. You don’t want to look because you know you are retaining water. Besides, the doctor scales are always off a good five pounds. Then, the nurse loudly announces the number as if it’s no big deal. You wish it wasn’t but it is!

    No matter how emotionally healthy we are, we still obsess about our weight. What woman doesn’t want to lose another five pounds?  How many of us lie about weight on our driver’s license? Weight matters, especially to women. In fact, 75% of us think we are too fat.

    Few of us look like the Sports Illustrated swimsuit models yet we spend billions of dollars on weight loss products and magical cures for obesity. Why are we so consumed with dieting? One reason is the media. We are bombarded by images of glamor and beauty constantly-TV, movies, magazines, and advertisements. Even standing in line at the grocery store, we stare at tabloids promising to melt the fat from our thighs like wax.

    With all our emphasis on thinness, 34 million Americans are overweight and 11 million suffer from eating disorders. The average American woman is five feet four inches tall, 144 pounds and a size 12. Compare that to the average model, five feet eight inches tall, 110 pounds and a size two. When you look at the model and then in the mirror, it’s easy to be depressed.

    The cultural pressure to be thin is so intense that nine-year-old girls are dieting and teen plastic surgery is on the rise. Thousands of dollars are spent on shaping, cutting, stapling and lopping off parts of the female body. Girls and women are highly influenced by media images and the media knows this.

    So how can you resist the million-dollar brainwash of the media all around you?

    Become outraged. Speak up about the negative effects media has on women and girls. Write letters to editors of magazines and tell them we’ve had enough.

    · Remember media pictures are often airbrushed and computer altered.

    · Listen to your daughters as they talk about their bodies and unrealistically compare them to the Barbies in their rooms. Correct their thinking to a healthier view of the female body.

    · Refuse to be a part of  the cultural obsession with thinness by complaining about your looks, comparing your body to glamour types and constantly dieting. It is one thing to take care of your body and another to obsess about looks.

    · Stop waiting to be thin. Work on the total person now.

    · Recognize that true beauty is inward, not a manufactured facade. God looks at the heart. Our bodies are mere temples that will pass away some day.

    · Don’t fall in love with products that promise you happiness. Only a relationship with God brings true happiness. There is no magic product or pill.

    · Expose yourself and your daughter to healthy images of women and girls.

    · Determine to be healthy. Focus on good eating habits and nutrition.

  • Dying to Be Thin

    Most women hate their bodies. Compared to women who grace magazine covers, books, CDs, movies, TV… well there is no comparison! The average model is 5’8”, wears a size 2 and weighs 110 pounds. This hardly approximates the average American women at 5’4”, size 12 and 144 pounds. For all our feminist protest, we still define ourselves by our bodies. Thin is in but hard to achieve. The desire to be thin is one reason why the diet industry is fueled by billions of dollars.

    We’ve been duped by a media strategy that vilifies fat people and convinces girls at the age of nine that they need to diet. The media’s role is huge but the media have partners–the food, diet, fashion, beauty and health care-industries. All dangle the thin carrot. We swallow it, even if it means possible death.

    Something has to change. Someone needs to protest. All of us need to stop spending money on magical cures that promise the moon and deliver nothing. This is getting dangerous.  People are being hurt.

    Kim found herself using her last bit of savings to go on yet another fad diet. This diet was expensive and beyond her budget. I was moved by the desperation in Kim. Despite her repeated failure on several other programs and the depletion of her savings, she was willing to try again. My advice to Kim was stop dieting. She didn’t need the debt or another failure.

    Kim isn’t alone. It’s time for all of us to stop dying to be thin! Check the statistics of any diet claim. If there are no statistics, be suspicious and don’t spend your money. Understand the risks involved with any diet aid or product. Consumers drive the market. If you stop buying the products, businesses will stop manufacturing them. Check with consumer advocacy groups who review these products and services. Let’s stop the mindless collusion with our culture’s idolatry of the body.