Risky Behavior - Weighty Obsessions

We know we're overweight (61% of adults in 1999) and some of us try — and keep on trying — to do something about it. The chart presents data from the Calorie Control Council's biannual survey of American eating and weight control habits.¹¹ It shows that 24% of adults (51 million people) were dieting in 2000. This figure includes people on any of the ubiquitous "lose weight fast — without trying — while sleeping" types of fad diets. The Calorie Control Council interprets the decline from 37% in 1987 as a positive sign, indicating that people "understand that traditional dieting (deprivation, short-term solutions) spell failure." Calorie Control Council's survey showed that women are more likely to blame themselves when they are unable to lose weight (41% cite "lack of self- discipline" versus 30% of men), while men are more likely to blame external sources such as their inability to find a proper meal at a restaurant.

Preoccupation with weight can be harmful to one's health and can lead to eating disorders like anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and obesity. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders¹²: "Individuals with [anorexia nervosa] keep their body weight below a minimal normal level by exercise, control of food intake, and other means…. Individuals with [bulimia nervosa] control their body weight in spite of binge overeating by purging (self-induced vomiting) or use of laxatives, diet pills or other means."

The table shows eating disorder statistics amassed by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and ANRED.¹³ NIMH concludes that females are far more likely than males to develop an eating disorder. The statistics are necessarily estimates; many of those affected will not admit they have a problem and do not seek treatment. Eating disorders often go hand in hand with other risky behaviors such as smoking, cutting (injuring oneself regularly and deeply enough to draw blood) and psychiatric problems such as clinical depression, anxiety, personality or substance abuse disorders, or obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD); many sufferers are at risk for suicide.

Statistics About Eating Disorders from NIMH and ANRED
% of females who suffer from anorexia nervosa in their lifetime	0.5 to 3.7
% of female adolescents who have anorexia	1
% of college-aged women who have bulimia	4
% of people with anorexia and bulimia who are male	10
% of females who suffer from bulimia nervosa in their lifetime	1.1 to 4.2
% of Americans who have binge-eating disorder in a 6-month period	2 to 5
% of women who seek treatment to lose weight who binge eat	30
% of alcoholic women under 30 who also have eating disorders	72
% of people with serious untreated eating disorders who die	up to 20
% of people with serious treated eating disorders who die	2-3
% of people with treated eating disorders who recover	60
% of people with serious treated eating disorders who recover partially	20

Public awareness of eating disorders rose over the last few decades, apparently as a result of the women's movement. "Eating disorders" appears on college syllabuses as a feminist issue, but Arnold Andersen, M.D., co-author of Making Weight, asserts that it is a men's issue as well. His book examines eating disorders and compulsive exercise and claims that as many as 25% of people with eating disorders are men.

Eating disorders are called a modern disease, a product of our society's over-emphasis on thinness, but Rudolph Bell's book Holy Anorexia points out that people of medieval times were elevated to sainthood after starving themselves, sometimes to death.¹⁴

Another area of concern for health experts is the current movement in some circles to make women in particular feel comfortable in their (fat) skin. When all is said and done, there seems to be one best way to take off excess pounds: You have to expend more calories than you take in. And it doesn't hurt to get moving.

Sources: Chart: Calorie Control Council, retrieved July 11, 2002, from http://www.caloriecontrol.org/dietfigs.html. National Institute of Mental Health, Eating Disorders: Facts About Eating Disorders and the Search for Solutions, retrieved July 12, 2002, from http://www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/eatingdisorder.cfm. University of Iowa Health Care, "Book co-written by UI physician can help men with conflicts about weight, appearance, food," retrieved July 12, 2002, from http://www.uihealthcare.com/.