How Thin is Too Thin?
By Dr. Randi Fredricks, Ph.D.
While the modern diagnoses of anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder were first recognized as major health problems in the
1950s, many of the behaviors that characterize eating disorders have been practiced for centuries.
Today, we see evidence of eating disorders everywhere. Magazines on newsstands full of photographs of celebrities and models who are painfully thin,
If the celebrity on the magazine cover is a normal weight, she is airbrushed to look thinner.
For years not, television shows have been showing unhealthily thin actresses with bones jutting out and silicone implants instead of real
breasts. What we don't think about is how these supermodels and actresses are so unnaturally thin that they are most likely anorexic,
They risk infertility, osteoporosis, kidney and organ damage, as well as death.
Anorexia nervosa is a disease of self-starvation. Recognition of its symptoms can be the first step toward getting help for yourself or
someone you care about. The following is a list of some of the symptoms:
Refusal to maintain body weight
Fear of gaining weight
Talk about feeling fat
Difficulty with eating full meals
Rigidity with what they will eat
An obsessive preoccupation with body size
Over-exercising
Intense dissatisfaction with physical appearance
Personality change from outgoing to withdrawn
Limit food intake to a narrow selection of low calorie foods
Hoarding, concealing, crumbling or throwing away food
Menstrual difficulties
There are many physical complications of anorexia and it is a disease with many consequences. About 5 to 20% of
anorexics die of major organ failure, due to their constant starvation. Some of the consequences are:
Cardiac problems, such as a slow or rapid heartbeat
Anema
Bruising
Decreased testicular function in men
Tooth decay
Yellowing skin or loss of skin color
Dizziness and fainting
High cholesterol
Lanugo (excessive growth of hair on the body)
Liver damage
Baldness
Pancreatitis
According to Prevention Magazine, a healthy weight for a woman who is 5'9" is 129-169 pounds. An average 5'9" model's
weight is somewhere around 110-115 lbs. According to a Prevention/NBC Survey,
60% of women have dieted or are on a diet,
44% of women refuse to be photographed in a swimsuit, and
37% of women won't play beach games while wearing swimsuits.
A survey by Natural Health magazine found:
44% of women who are average or underweight think that they are overweight.
The average woman's dress size is 12 and the average mannequin dress size is 6.
The average height and weight for women age 18 to 74 years old is 5'4" and 138 lbs.
A survey conducted by Better Health Channel found:
45% of women and 23% of men in the healthy weight range think they are overweight.
20% of women who are underweight think that they are overweight and are dieting to lose weight.
Many of those who suffer from the disorders are adolescent and young women, but boys, men and women also have eating disorders. Research suggests
that up to 5% of Americans have some type of eating disorder, and many experts believe the figure is much higher.
Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness. The mortality rate among people with anorexia has been estimated at 0.56% per
year,
or about 5.6% per decade, which is about 12 times higher than the annual death rate due to all causes of death among females ages 15 to 24 in
the general population.
References (To view, roll mouse over the "References" heading; to hide, click on the heading)
American Psychiatric Association (2000), Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. (4th Ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.
Better Health Channel. (2008). Weight loss - common myths. Victoria, Australia: Better Health Channel. Retreived August 1, 2009 from
http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Weight_loss_common_ misconceptions
Field, A. E., Camargo, C. A. Jr, Taylor, C. B., Berkey, C. S., & Colditz, G. A. (1999). Relation of peer and media influences to the development of
purging behaviors among preadolescent and adolescent girls. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med, 153(11), 1184-1189.
Harris, E. C., & Barraclough, B. (1998). Excess mortality of mental disorder. Br J Psychiatry, 173, 11-53.
Jeffery, R. W., & French, S. A. (1999). Preventing weight gain in adults: The pound of prevention study. Am J Public Health, 89(5), 747-751.
Neumark-Sztainer, D., Wall, M., Story, M., &Sherwood, N. E. (2009). Five-year longitudinal predictive factors for disordered eating in a population-based sample of overweight adolescents: Implications for prevention and treatment. Int J Eat Disord, 42(7), 664-672.
Robinson, P. H. (2000). Recognition and treatment of eating disorders in primary and secondary care. Aliment Pharmacol Ther, 14,, 367-377.
Sullivan, P. F. (1995). Mortality in anorexia nervosa. Am J Psychiatr, 152(7), 1073-1074.