Month: July 2023

I mainly read “The Eating Disorder Sourcebook” (1996) by Carolyn Costin for the last two weeks. In this book, Carolyn describes the history of eating disorders, the types of eating disorders, and the internal and external factors that cause them. Meanwhile, Carolyn also lists the further treatments for eating disorders, which include professional treatment and family treatment, which includes treatment dialogue between herself and the patient.

In addition, Carolyn suffered eating disorder for a long time. So she clearly understands the feeling of being an eating disorder. Through reading, I can feel her. Her writing, full of empathy, also keeps a professional attitude. So I will document her valuable thoughts in this post.

The content with the following aspects discusses what affects eating disorders.

• Sociocultural: A look at the cultural preference for thinness, and the current epidemic of body dissatisfaction and dieting, with an emphasis not only on weight loss but also on the ability to control one’s body as a means of gaining approval, acceptance, and self-esteem.
• Psychological: The exploration of underlying psychological problems, developmental deficits, and traumatic experiences such as sexual abuse, which contribute to the development of disordered eating or exercise behaviors as coping mechanisms or adaptive functions.
• Biological: A review of the current information available on whether or not there is a genetic predisposition or biological status that is at least partly responsible for the development of an eating or activity disorder.

Chapter 4: Sociocultural Influences on Eating, Weight, and Shape

In today’s culture, thinness represents not only attractiveness but also self-sacrifice, virtue, success, and control. The pervasive attitude seems to be that the more fat one has on his or her body, the more unattractive, self-indulgent, lazy, and out of control one is.

With the slogan, “Just the Right Shape”, one wonders what is being sold, the body or the outfit? Media advertisements like these both reflect and shape our perceptions and standard of beauty.

It may be that the media pressure to diet is a major influence on the occurrence of eating disorders in otherwise vulnerable women and men.” Since the culturally prescribed body weight is so unrealistically low and since mountains of evidence show that diets don’t work (approximately 98 percent of those who lose weight gain it back), it follows that some individuals will resort to extreme measures such as starving or purging in order to deal with their dissatisfaction over their figures or sizes, striving to obtain “Just the Right Shape.”

Most ads and diet products are directed toward females, but males are no longer spared. Males are increasingly portrayed as ora-mental objects and targeted for the purchase of beauty and weight loss products, as women have been since advertising began. Is it a coincidence that the incidence of males with eating disorders is also increasing?) Still, eating disorders remain a predominantly female problem, with females accounting for approximately 90 to 95 percent of all known cases. In regard to this gender distribution, it may seem obvious, but cannot be minimized, that historically men are judged more for what they do and women for how they look. Of the many Life magazine covers that have featured women over the last fifty years, only nineteen featured women who were not actresses or models- that is, women who were not on the cover because of their beauty (Wolf 1991). Women have always been taught that their value is associated with their appearance and their bodies.

It is our society, not any particular woman’s psyche, which has brought about the undue influence that weight and shape play on self-esteem.

And now our wonderful technology can remove fat from our thighs and add it to our breasts. Plastic surgery for cosmetic reasons is being performed on children as young as twelve. It is interesting to note that although eating disorders are increasingly appearing in all cultures around the world, Westernized women seem to be at greater risk for developing them, and the degree of Westernization seems to increase the risk (Dolan 1991). Evidence suggests that anorexia and bulimia nervosa, although present, are uncommon outside the Western world and in less affluent Western countries. Furthermore, when immigrants move from less industrialized countries to more industrialized countries they are more likely to develop eating disorders.

My Though:
With China's rapid economic development and increasing industrialisation, eating disorders are now becoming a common phenomenon among the Chinese population (mainly women), but due to the lack of widespread education in psychology and nutrition, as well as the lack of professional knowledge, not many people are aware of their eating disorders, which makes them ashamed of their behaviour and unable to seek help from the outside world in a timely manner. East Asian women are more introverted than their Western counterparts, and have been brought up with the social precept that they should "not express your feelings easily, and keep silent most of the time".

Women have gone through fundamental changes in their place in society, both economically and politically, and thinness has come to symbolise control, wealth, independence, and freedom. Whereas at one time, it was virtuous to abstain from sex, it has now become virtuous to abstain from food. Even thinness is no longer enough. The contemporary feminine ideal includes being thin and physically fit.

Eating disorders need to be understood within the context of the current culture, where the idea that thinness is attractive and desirable for females is so commonly accepted that it is rarely even questioned.

Starving, stuffing, and purging women are trying desperately to gain acceptance, approval, control, and love through external validation of their bodies. Eating disorders are not about food or weight but a disordered “sense of self” looking for approval and finding it, however temporarily, in the pursuit of thinness or the comfort of food.

These women are all expressing a deeper struggle than thin versus fat. In essence, they are describing a struggle for power, success, and control. The issue becomes mind over matter. We look up to people who can lose weight and keep it off even if they are unhealthy and unhappy. The ultimate power felt by anorexics is that they do without, punish their bodies, and make them obey. The increased incidence of eating disorders in certain subgroups of our population that stress these ideals along with thinness, such as ballerinas, models, gymnasts, and jockeys, lends even further credence to the cultural factor in the causes of eating disorders.

Eating disorders are highly complex and are the manifestation not only of our culture but also of various underlying struggles in the core of the personality and even the biochemistry of each individual afflicted.

Chapter 5: Eating Disorder Behaviors Are Adaptive Function

A struggling will, an insecure feeling, and despair may manifest themselves in problems with the care and feeding of the body but are fundamentally a problem with the care and feeding of the soul. In her aptly titled book The Obsession, Kim Chernin has wit ten, The body holds meaning . .. when we probe beneath the surface of our obsession with weight, we will find that a woman obsessed with her body is also obsessed with the limitations of her emotional life. Through her concern with her body, she is expressing serious concern about the state of her soul.”
What are the emotional limitations commonly seen in individuals with eating disorders? What is the state of their souls?

Common State of Being for The Eating Disordered Individual:

• Low self-esteem
• Diminished self-worth
• Belief in the thinness myth
• Need for distraction
• Dichotomous (black or white) thinking
• Feeling of emptiness
• Quest for perfection
• Desire to be special/unique
• Need to be in control
• Need for power
• Desire ffor respect and admiration
• Diffuculty expressing feeling
• Need for escape or a safe place to go
• Lack of coping skills
• Lace of trust in self and others
• Terrified of not measuring up

Eating disorder symptoms serve some purpose that goes beyond weight loss, food as comfort, or an addiction, and beyond a need to be special or in control. Eating disorder symptoms can be seen as behavioural manifestations of a disordered self, and the purpose or meaning of the behavioural symptoms can be discovered through understanding and working with this disordered self.

The development of an eating disorder can begin early in life when childhood needs and mental states are not properly responded to by caregivers and thus get disowned, repressed, and shunted off into a separate part of a person’s psyche. The child develops deficits in his or her capacities for self-cohesion and self-esteem regulation.
At some point in time, the individual learns to create a system whereby disordered eating patterns, rather than people, are used to meet needs because previous attempts with caregivers have brought about disappointment, frustration, or even abuse.

The development of an eating disorder can begin early in life when childhood needs and mental states are not properly responded to by caregivers and thus get disowned, repressed, and shunted off into a separate part of a person’s psyche. The child develops deficits in his or her capacities for self-cohesion and self-esteem regulation. At some point in time, the individual learns to create a system whereby disordered eating patterns, rather than people, are used to meet needs because previous attempts with caregivers have brought about disappointment, frustration, or even abuse.

• a distorted self-image (I am selfish, bad, stupid)
• no self-image ( I don’t deserve to be heard or seen, I don’t exist)

Adaptive Function of Eating Disorders

• Comfort, soothing, nurturance
• Numbing, sedation, distraction
• Attention, cry for help
• Discharge tension, anger, rebellion
• Predictability, structure, identity
• Self-punishment or punishment of “the body”
• Cleanse or purify self
• Create small or large body for protection/safety
• Avoidance of intimacy
• Symptoms prove “I am bad” instead of blaming others (for example, abusers)

Sexual Abuse

Although researchers have used varying definitions of sexual abuse and methodologies in their studies, the above figures show that sexual trauma or abuse in childhood is a risk factor for developing eating disorders. Furthermore, clinicians nationwide have experienced countless women who describe and interpret their eating disorders as connected to early sexual abuse. Anorexics have described starvation and weight loss as trying to avoid sexual alit and thus evade or escape sexual drive, feelings, or potential perpetrators. Bulimics have described their symptoms as a way of purging the perpetrator, raging at the violator or oneself, and getting rid of the filth or dirtiness inside of them. Binge eaters have suggested that overeating numbs their feelings, distracts them from other bodily sensations, and results in weight gain that “armours” them and keeps them unattractive to potential sexual partners or perpetrators.

Chapter 7: Assessing The Sotuation

Checklist of Observable and Nonobervable Sighs of an Eating Disorder

Chapter 8 :Guidelines for Significant Others

Friends and Family members are often the forgotten victim of eating disorders.

• Pick a time and place where there will be no interruptions and no need to hurry
• Be empathetic and Understanding
• Express your concern about what you have observed and speak from your own experience
• Provide information about resources for treatment
• Do not argue oof get into a power struggle
• Accept your limitaions

Recovery from anorexia and bulimia takes approximately four-and-a-half to six-and-a-half years.

Chapter 9: Treatment Philosophy and Approaches

Three main philosophical approaches to the treatment of eating disorders.

• Psychodynamic
• Cognitive behavioural
• Disease/ addiction

I spend two weeks finishing reading “Eat Fat”, a book written by Richard Klein. Overall, Klein explores the cultural and historical perspectives surrounding fat consumption in our diets. He challenges the traditional notion that fat is inherently bad for us and argues that it has been unfairly demonised in nutrition.

Klein delves into the science behind fat metabolism and discusses how our understanding of fats has evolved. He examines the social and psychological factors that have shaped our attitudes towards fat, including the influence of the diet industry and media. Through thought-provoking analysis and research, Klein presents a compelling case for the importance of fat in our diets. He highlights the role of fats in providing essential nutrients, supporting brain function, and contributing to overall health and well-being.

Two of the most attractive chapters for me are “Introduction” (Pages 3-69) and “The Nature of Fat”(Pages 147-196).

Introduction

In “Introduction”, Richard Klein spends a lot of words explaining his opinion about the journey of fat becoming evil in our bodies. There was a passage that caught my attention:

Whereas anorexic men are increasingly being diagnosed and described, the preponderance of eating disorders is found in women. Many of those women are obeying their parents’ explicit orders or implicit wishes in a form of ironic revolt. defying their wishes, they fulfil them beyond their wildest dreams to the last literal letter of the law. So you want me to be thin, I’ll show you thin. The anorexic is a good girl, who does exactly what her parents wish, but in spades- to the death.

Richard Klein/ Eat Fat page 37

His opinion makes me realise that the common characteristic among individuals with eating disorders is excessive concern about others’ opinions, to the extent that they are willing to go to great lengths (such as extreme dieting) to meet others’ standards and gain a sense of approval. These others may include parents, colleagues, and other members of society. Because they were held hostage by some misguided values (unrealistically thin beauty standards) from a young age. Thus individuals with eating disorders do have confidence in themself.

Richard Klein lists three, widely acknowledge and generally understood as follows.

1. Fat is ugly. Our commitment to a certain slim ideal of human beauty is only about a century old, but it has already become second nature. It has come to seem perfectly natural to hate fat. Even the thin among us dream of dropping five or ten pounds. Losing weight, we imagine, will make us more sexy, productive, and rich. But it’s not just the commercial interest and social value we derive from our investment in thin in a world where fat girls struggle and skinny ones model. Above all, it’s our stake in an idea of beauty that compels us to want to be thin and to encourage others for example, our children- as well. In our eyes in our mind’s eve-we love the look of thin. Fat disgusts.
2. Fat is unhealthy. The medical-nutrition-insurance-beauty industry has for some time promoted the notion that fat kills, that the more drastically we limit it in our food and on our bodies, the more we increase our chances of longevity. Fat poisons.
3. Fat weighs us down, slows us up. Our progressive need for greater energy and a desire to step more lightly upon the earth seem at odds with fat. Many of those who have writ-ten about the history of fat in the twentieth century have seen the connection between the dream of thinness and the mod-er desire for greater agility, flexibility, and speed. Energy is the principal gain, it is supposed, from being thin, some kinetic enhancement that makes us more vital, more excited, more suited in our bodies for the exhilarations inspired by the modern pleasures of machine speed. This conviction persists despite the evidence, irrefutably accumulated in repeated studies, that fat people are sexier: they want more sex more often than thin people.

“Eat Fat”, published in 1997, describes a toxic diet phenomenon in American society. It was 26 years ago. Does the over-diet phenomenon disappear? Yes, it still exists. Young girls still keep judging their own bodies. And the dream figures become Kim Kardashian and Bella Hadid. People chase fashion icons or influential people. Meanwhile, a Chinese woman can be seen as a “Chinese Kim Kardashian” in China. Her name is Mengling Yi.

I don’t intend to compare the beauty standards of two countries; I simply want to clarify that, whether in Western or Chinese culture, people often desire an ideal body shape with graceful curves and slender legs. This is not inherently negative, but some women may excessively pursue this physique, overlooking their own health in the process.

Aesthetic standards have evolved over time, reflecting the changing trends of each era. The book’s chapter ‘Fat Beauty’ (Pages 111-146) explores how ancient Western societies once admired curvaceous Greek women but later, with the rise of Christianity, were drawn to slender Gothic actresses. From then on, aesthetic preferences transformed in response to societal demands, leading to today’s modern standards.

Similarly, in China, influenced by its early matriarchal society, the initial aesthetic standard favoured robust women. However, as patriarchal values gained prominence, the ideal shifted towards delicate, slender females. Nevertheless, witnessing a growing awareness among women worldwide is heartening, leading to the diversification of beauty ideals.

The Nature of Fat

In this chapter, Richard Klein starts with the negative impact of over-diet. Surround with this topic. He introduced the development of diet “medicine” in the US market during 20 century 90th and the so-called healthy food trap. This series of phenomena exposes the hidden class gap and the market economy’s rules behind them. Reading through the chapter, I understand the prevalence of dieting was closely linked to the marketing and economic interests of the time.