Ok, here's something I've been thinking about for a while... In today's society most of the people in the public eye are thin, ya? I'm constantly hearing complaining about this, and that they should have more "normal sized woman" in media, and that these woman are bad for young girls self esteem and all of that... anorexia is a huge problem in our society, and lots of people have self image problems because of it, right? Now before I move on I just want to say, I don't mean any offence to bigger people by any means, you don't have to be thin to be beautiful, not at all, there is no difference in my mind personally in people's beauty due to weight. But is this really a battle worth fighting? Everyone keeps saying media figures should look more like everyday people. But let us now think about North America, and Western culture in general. What do we have a bigger problem with Anorexia, or Obesity? Our problem in this society is not being too thin, but being too big, people are eating to a point where it's making them unhealthy, is that something we want to encourage more in the media. And especially when most of the world does not have enough food to get by on. We have so much, and excess ourselves in it so often, that our average sized person has more body fat then they require, is that somthing to be proud of? When people are starving? I am by no means too skinny, but I get people telling me i'd better go eat something and put meat on my bones and shit. Well frankly, I'd rather not eat unless I'm hungry, and if I feel like pigging out for no reason, or eating more then I need...I'd rather remind myself of the starving mothers and fathers in Africa and lots of others places in the world who don't even have enough food to keep their children alive. Because that's a real problem. I'm not saying self image is not something to be concerned about, I'm just saying instead of people torturing themselves about being fat, just remember everything you have, that most of the world doesn't. And if you want to complain about models being too thin, maybe just remember that they are not hurting anybody but themselves by being to thin. The way I see obesity is instead of buying that extra pack of snacks, maybe you sponcer a child or something with that money, it solves both the weight problem your having so much trouble with, and helps keep a child ALIVE! This is just something thats been really bothering me latley...That people in our society even have the oppertunity to have "weight problems" when there are so many hungry people out there just desturbs me to my bones. And I Know that I'm part of the problem. Just please think about it ok? So here's the challange: Everytime you go to purchase, or eat a piece of food that your body does not really really need, take that money and put it towards sponcering a child or something...If we could all do this it could make such a difference in the world.
anorexia is a lot more psychologically damaging though. It can lead to a lot of future psychological problems, even after healthy eating is reinstituted. The whole "normal woman bodies" thing is more to do with self esteem in young gals than promoting obesity/unhealthy eating habits. Low self esteem can also cause a lot of serious problems, a lot of self-destructive habits (like..... anorexia!)
No, I know it, anorexia is terrible. I just find it desterbing the we can have any sort of body esteem eating problems at all, be them anorexia or obesity, because it means that clearly we have to much...I'm not low balling anorexia, just saying that instead of thinking about the shape of our own bodies (big or small) we should be thinking about keeping other bodies alive...
Obesity can also be a form of an eating disorder for some people, except it's when someone compulsively eats as a comfort. It's just as bad as anorexia, just not as public.
the establishment wants your soul!!!dont eat there food , watch there tv, or listen to them!!!! AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!RUN!!!!!!!!!!
almost every girl you know? that is sick obesity is an eating disorder and its serious but anorexia/ bulemia will kill you faster which is why it gets more attention both are horrible disorders
They are aweful. But I think everyone's sort of missing my point...This is not about eating disorders, only about the fact that we have enough goods in our society to be able to have either of them...that you have the option to be over weight, or to be starving yourself...When in other countries they don't have that option, they don't have enough food to keep their babies alive, and as such, we should do everything we can to help. It would help ourselves, because we for once can stop thinking about our own bodies and be hleping someone elses. It's more about having perspective about what's going on around us, while we're rather staving ourselves or over indulging. 6% of the world has almost all the enonomy and uses 60% of the natural resources...we need to make alot of changes if this is to stop.
Possibly But you did say "I think we can all agree"... your thought was wrong, since I do not agree with that, therefore it can't be all... corporate news is a much bigger problem than reality tv... tv in general is a bigger problem than reality tv. I'm just a smartass. ... ...
For editory purposes, anorexia is a very serious mental disorder, and should be evaluated and treated as soon as possible. But that being said, it doesn't even compare to the problem of world hunger. two thirds of the planet is affected by Malnutrition and anemia. Theres enough food right now on the planet to feed the entire world, so if you were naive, you might think, we'll why don't we just give it to them... but thats simply impossible. The price of shipping enough food to make a dent in world hunger would be astronomical... literally hundreds of billions of dollars for one shipment, and theres also the fact that most food of dietary consequence spoils very rapidly, (meat, milk, bread, veggies.) we could probably ship twinkies and pop tarts for an insane amount of money, but that wouldn't really combat hunger at all. Another problem in delivering the food is one of the major causes for hunger... a lack of infrastructure. Many of the places that need this aid so much, don't even have roads... this makes giving them food grown here impossible. These poor people have dirt, they have water, they have the sun, but they mostly use innefecient slash and burn croping methods. They don't have the machinery to harvest large amounts of this food, they lack the hybrid strains that produce more food per acre, and they often don't have enough infrastucture, (roads, markets) to distribute this food... so while one village may not have enough food, another village has too much, and some of it rots. Using only organic croping methods on currently existing farmlands, we could only produce a quarter of the food we are now.
So whats the solution? Well theres no magic bullet, at least not yet, but this has been the greatest century in terms of producing and getting more food to the starving population. In the 50's there was an apocolyptic lack of food and population growths on the Asian contienent, and a catastophe was predicted, where billions would starve. But that didn't happen... the populations grew as expected, but the food output increased dramatically, this was thanks to the introduction of advanced western farming techniques and hybird plant strains to much of the third world. The man spearheading this campaign, an american agronomist named Dr. Norman Borlaug, won the nobel prize in 1970. When he won the nobel prize, they predicted that Dr. Borlaug had saved over a billion lives. And hes been working ever since. http://reason.com/0004/fe.rb.billions.shtml Norman Borlaug is the greatest man who has ever lived.
So one major step in the allocation of more food for the third world is the introduction of hybrid plant strains, or so called, GM crops, which produce more food per acre, and can thrive in harsh climates. GM food is nothing ghastly, When you crossbreed a plant you're mixing 50,000 genes of one plant, with 50,000 genes of another plant, with GM, you're carfully replacing a few genes. The US can't ship food produced here to Africa... most food spoils quickly and the shipping costs would be astronomical. But you can ship seeds and spores, and since hybrid crops can germinate more effeciently, they are ideal for the third world. the USDA the FDA, the EPA, and the WHO have all approved GM crops sold on the market for human consumption. The benifits of Bio-tech are limitless, crops can produce 8 times yields, survive harsh climates, survive refrigeration longer, be less suseptable to pesticides. (The US is ruining Columbia's countryside to fight the drug war) And Hybrid crops can also have more nutrients then regular crops, golden rice for example, is rice infused with Iron, a nutrient not usaully found in rice, making it a very effective to fight anemia, which affects a large part of the world. http://www.biotech-info.net/GR_tale.html
Aha, but I covered my ass and used "think," expressing some doubt over my conviction. Hoo hah! Words are fun, man!
