Dying to Be Thin

Designer Diane Von Furstenberg who is the president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, sent a letter to the fashion designers urging them to take a look at dangerously thin models. In the letter she called them a "Global Fashion Issue." She also stated in the letter that, "as designers, we cannot ignore the impact fashion has on body image. We share a responsibility to protect women, and very young girls in particular, within the industry, sending the message that health is beauty."

Being thin has become the norm for too long. We see it everywhere, in the magazines, T.V. where actresses are striving to achieve the 'perfect body'. With such a preoccupation with body image it's no wonder eating disorders are on the rise. It's not just teen agers that are effected with eating disorders anymore. According to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, Nearly 7 million women and 1 million men are effected in some way by eating disorders. This eating disorder kills if not treated. Some people with Anorexia have to be hospitalized and have a PEG tube surgically put into the their stomachs so they can have nourishment. But some patients find ways around getting nourishment into them, they find it quite easy to steal a syringe and suck what little is inside their stomachs... out.

Models are far too thin and they are glamorized for being such, but they should not be. Teen age girls see these ultra thin models and think that is the way their bodies are supposed to look. We need to remember that not everyone can have that ultra thin body, nor should we try to. It's just not healthy.

The average American does not have the body type you see glamorized in magazines or by models. You can be healthy and be overweight.

Back when the ancient Greek and Roman statues were being made, the women they depicted in those statues were chubby, not overly thin. Those women looked healthy with a few extra pounds on them and they were seen as beautiful. A women who has a few extra pounds on her body is still beautiful and healthy looking. How did the whole ultra thin body become the norm in our society?

It is critical that we as parents help our children foster positive body images for themselves. They need to know that it is normal for a teen age body to change and grow as they get older. The ultra thin bodies they see in magazines and on T.V. are not something they should be striving for.

When people start having risky and sometimes dangerous surgery to make their bodies thinner when they don't have health problems that warrant such surgery, what is that telling our impressionable children?

Do you know just how many different types of weight loss surgery there are? I'm not talking about the Liposuction. I mean life changing surgery like Gastric Bypass Surgery or Lapband Surgery. Both procedures offer risks after surgery. These procedures restrict food intake and sometimes interrupt the natural digestive process. Some women have gone so far as to have their ribs removed during abdominoplasty (Tummy Tuck) in order to achieve a more feminine figure. Surgeons remove ribs 11, 12 and sometimes 10 in order to achieve this look. These surgeries are not reversible and should not be taken lightly. Some people have their Jaws wired shut so that no solid foods can be ingested. Once the weight loss has been achieved the wiring is removed.

I am not advocating any of these methods of weight loss. I think if you are committed to exercising every day along with a healthy diet you will lose weight. Maybe not as much or as fast as with the surgeries, but I think it's a healthier way to go about doing it.

It is possible for an overweight person to be a healthy person. I am what most would consider to be overweight, but I am healthy. Not every overweight person will have heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol or any of the other ailments often associated with being overweight. Acitve overweight people have a lower mortality rate than normal weight people who are not active. So the risks of being overweight can be controlled if the person is fit and active. A person can be physically fit while being overweight, according to the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports.

Instead of trying to be what other people think you should be or look like, why not just be happy with yourself and how you look no matter what. I am.