Obesity and eating disorders are both big issues for young people. There's a lot of pressure upon people to look a certain way. What can be done to strike a balance between these two extremes?
It is thought that within three or four years England’s population will rival America’s in terms of obesity. Lifestyles consisting of little exercise and poor diets are contributing to this. Obesity is sweeping the nation. Are fast food chains to blame for this, or is it only fair to blame ourselves?
Fast-food stores seem to be cropping up everywhere, as far as the eye can see. Their in-your-face marketing and universal appeal are leaving their mark on our waist lines.
It’s all very well to directly blame these companies, who aim to get as much food down your throat as they can, with little regard to your health, in order to make money, but it’s us who decide where and what to eat. Fifteen-year-old Sarah Deighton said: “I don’t think fast food chains encourage obesity, they’re just advertising their food. It’s up to the people if they want to eat so much that they become obese.”
With the busy lifestyles led today, it can be difficult to find the time and energy to prepare and cook a meal at the end of a long day’s work. But is it worth risking our health to spare ourselves a little extra work?
On the flip side of this is the other extreme: size zero. Anorexia is a condition affecting the lives of tens of thousands of teenage girls throughout England. The media worship skinny celebrities and are constantly splashing their images across magazines that teenagers read. This behaviour is making young people susceptible to illness and can lead to death in some cases.
The media are pressuring young people into believing that the thinner they are the better. Girls are being driven towards dieting and even skipping whole meals. Celebrities are idolised by teenagers all over the nation; they are role models for them. In the past, wherever celebrities have gone, hundreds of admiring teenagers have followed. Now it seems this is happening even more, often with disastrous results.
“Fashion magazines only tend to show the skinniest models on their front covers and use computer graphics to make them appear even thinner,” says Vikky Fox. “This influences people of our generation to be like that. I hold the media responsible because, at the end of the day, they choose which pictures to put on the pages of their magazines. Peer pressure is definitely another factor in some cases.”
Skinny is portrayed by the media as being beautiful, even perfect. Stick-thin celebrities are the media’s darlings. This is encouraging teenagers to copy the catwalk models and is pushing them into an unhealthy mindset.
Appearance plays a huge part in our lives, and this, along with a low self-esteem, is cited as a reason why people feel the need to diet to the extreme.
How can we achieve a balance between these two extremes? How can we persuade young people that slimming is not the answer to life’s problems, while persuading others that gorging themselves with fatty foods is no good either?
In our media-enriched society, images of ‘the perfect body’ are as ubiquitous as fast food, with no consideration for those that may be affected. This can destroy bigger people’s self-esteem, while fuelling the race for size zero among others.
Obesity and eating disorders, such as anorexia and bulimia, do have some things in common: they are both unhealthy and they are both killers. However, obesity can occur from an addiction to food and little, or no, exercise, while anorexia is psychological.
It is important to strike a balance and encourage people to avoid the extremes.
More education is needed in this field, not only in schools, but in the home as well. Young people need to be more aware of the dangers of binge eating and extreme dieting. A good example needs to be set by parents so that children are aware of what foods they should eat to stay healthy.
