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Who's to Blame for Eating Disorders?

February 9, 2007

If you're like me you're a little sick of all the flip-flopping on who is ultimately responsible for contributing to eating disorders in young women. First it was the modeling world and media. Then Gisele piped in and blamed parents. Shortly afterwards Gisele got publicly criticized for pointing fingers at parents and researchers in turn pointed their fingers straight at genetics.

Anyone else confused?

Well not to confuse you even more but new research is out from Stanford University that says fathers are the ones to blame now as well. Their findings came after noticing the lack in research on the father's role in eating disorders. Further finding that fathers are important in influencing their daughters toward bulimia, particularly fathers who were overweight and wanted to be thinner. These influences may be direct, such as criticizing the daughter's weight or shape, or indirect, by expressing their own concerns about weight and shape.

My head is spinning -- Who do you blame the most for contributing to eating disorders?

67 Comments

3 years 35 weeks

hellloooooooo my name is joe i dont have any problems :) butt i wanted to comment causee you see i like to type :) but since i have nothing to say i would like to comment on fatty fatty boom and skinny little cow :L yoous gys crack me upp :D butt i think its sad causeeee you well made those things upp a bet that you fatty fatty boom boom aint fat sick BASTARDS

3 years 35 weeks

yous are sick :O hahahah ! but i love yous !

3 years 36 weeks

aaaaw thanks youuu ! I LOVE FAAAAT PEOPLEEE ! :O:P:) xxxxx i will name my skin and bone after youu ! :D

3 years 36 weeks

awwww :D thanks skinny little cow ??;)i am a male by the way :) and that little comment turned mee on :P im going to name my flab after you, thank you soooo much :) I LOVEEEE SKINNY PEOLPLE :)xxxxx

3 years 36 weeks

aaaw dont worry fatty fatty boom boom im sure you are not fat ! :O:( how do you think i feel i am like a rake and people make fun of me calling me a skinny little height of sh*te ! im hate those stupid toley munchers ! love you fatty fatyy boom boom ! xxxx

3 years 36 weeks

seee ! you know how ... you seee you know how ,, well im just sick of people calling me fatt :( i can see that i am a little plump but i dont see the problem :? and its because of your stupid website that had me eating and thinkinbg for weeeks :@ I HATE YOU MOTHER FUCKERS !!!!!!!!!!!!

kalaloughary 5 years 44 weeks

It's everything it's never black and white for anyone the problem. For me I don't eat when I am stressed out it's a control issue. I passed out one day because of it and when everyone of my friends and family watched me like hawks for days I got soo mad saying "why is everyone treating me like I have an eating disorder", when one of my friends finally said "well cause you do" It hit me I then understood how easy it is for eating disorders to take over young girls lives. Luckily, I have been arround people with the problem, been educated on it and was able to stop it before it got out of control, but alot of people are unaware of the problem. Blame is not the cure!

kalaloughary 5 years 44 weeks

mandiesoh 6 years 14 weeks

so true sticky!

mandiesoh 6 years 14 weeks

so true sticky!

colormesticky 6 years 14 weeks

Parents & family, self, peers, industry.

bpjedi 6 years 14 weeks

I think it is a combination of things.For those of you who have opened up about your eating disorders, I commend you for your honesty.

bpjedi 6 years 14 weeks

I think it is a combination of things. For those of you who have opened up about your eating disorders, I commend you for your honesty.

ilove2ski 6 years 14 weeks

I really think it depends on the person. One of my very best friends had one, and it was awful for me. You really can't help someone unless they want it. I tried everything that I could think of. (Which I ended up gaining 10 pounds from this) Anytime that she would ask me if I wanted to go eat I would, even if I had just ate. I seriously thought that she was getting better since I would see her eat. Well later when she got better she told me that when I would go eat with her she would go home and throw it up.

flutterpie 6 years 14 weeks

sorry i hate doing this: that should of said most eating disorders begin to manifest themselves as young as 10 or 11 flutter-the one, the only, accept no substitutions

flutterpie 6 years 14 weeks

sorry i hate doing this: that should of said most eating disorders begin to manifest themselves as young as 10 or 11flutter-the one, the only, accept no substitutions

flutterpie 6 years 14 weeks

bttrfly-ocd is a chemical imbalance which if left unchecked can lead to depression, withdrawal and eventually suicide. many eating disorder victims go through the same obsessive patterns (writing down every food you eat, counting calories, and how many you have burned, etc.) the fact is that there is much more to it than hey im not eating today. of course there are initial choices involved but eating disorders are affecting girls as young as 10 or 11, they think that hitting puberty is getting fat. where is that idea coming from? should young girls really be held responsible for how they perceive themselves? flutter-the one, the only, accept no substitutions

flutterpie 6 years 14 weeks

Butrfly4404 6 years 14 weeks

flutterpie - Alcoholism and drug abuse are also partly psychological problems that resonate from varying contributing factors....but they are the ones who take the drugs, who drink the alcohol. I agreed that parents really do set the examples at home, but there are plenty of people who come from good families with good morals and even good eating habits and still end up with an eating disorder.OCD is NOT like an eating disorder as it doesn't (usually, at least) harm you - there is no physical change from it. Alcoholism, eating disorders, cutting, even putting yourself in abusive relationships...all partly psychological, partly phsyical...all can only be started AND stopped by themselves. If we're looking to place blame here, that's the only real place it can go. One can not turn around and say "My mom is so bad to me, THAT'S why I use drugs, it's HER fault I smoked that crack." Is it??? Did she buy the drugs? No. Did she light 'em up for you? No. They may have made them FEEL bad, and turn to another source to let out their pain, but they most certainly did not hold them and force them to purge or starve them or give them the drugs, etc.

Butrfly4404 6 years 14 weeks

flutterpie - Alcoholism and drug abuse are also partly psychological problems that resonate from varying contributing factors....but they are the ones who take the drugs, who drink the alcohol. I agreed that parents really do set the examples at home, but there are plenty of people who come from good families with good morals and even good eating habits and still end up with an eating disorder. OCD is NOT like an eating disorder as it doesn't (usually, at least) harm you - there is no physical change from it. Alcoholism, eating disorders, cutting, even putting yourself in abusive relationships...all partly psychological, partly phsyical...all can only be started AND stopped by themselves. If we're looking to place blame here, that's the only real place it can go. One can not turn around and say "My mom is so bad to me, THAT'S why I use drugs, it's HER fault I smoked that crack." Is it??? Did she buy the drugs? No. Did she light 'em up for you? No. They may have made them FEEL bad, and turn to another source to let out their pain, but they most certainly did not hold them and force them to purge or starve them or give them the drugs, etc.

rubialala 6 years 14 weeks

All of the above.

flutterpie 6 years 14 weeks

wow, i love the sensitivity of which this issue is handled. you guys do realize that its considered a psychological problem not unlike obsessive compulsive disorder. so is an obsessive compulsive to blame for feeling the compulsion to flip on the light ten times? the fact is that there are all kinds of situations that can cause an eating disorder, gisele bundchen got knocked for saying families were to blame for eating disorders but she had a point, girls who grow up in a positive environment are not going to put all their self worth in diet and excercise or lack therof. if a girl watches her mom only eat lettuce for two weeks each month, then guess what that girl may eat lettuce for a month straight when she feels fat. if a girl grows up with fashion magazines all around her, then that could be her standard of beauty. for those who say blame yourself, its that kind of ignorance about eating disorders, that keeps the problem going. just eat or just dont eat, to you is easy. but to someone who has this disorder, its a milestone flutter-the one, the only, accept no substitutions

flutterpie 6 years 14 weeks

quietriott 6 years 14 weeks

actually katie225, from an evolutionary standpoint, being thin could be an evolutionary disadvantage for women as a certain level of body fat is necessary to menstruate, sustain a pregnancy and the subsequent breastfeeding that most (non-western) societies dictate until the child is a toddler. a woman who is able to store more excess bodyfat while remaining active will also be able to survive the nutritional hardship of caring for a baby in the event of a decrease in available food resources by burning the excess stored fat. from an evolutionary standpoint then, these women will be able to endure food resource hardship, provide nutrition for their children, produce more children who will not only survive but go on to reproduce and eventually their genes would be over-represented in the gene pool.so in other words, our early human ancestors were likely not size zeros, but probably a larger, healthier size appropriate for their level of activity and daily stress on the body.the current obsession with extreme thinness is actually a projection of social and cultural values and standards of beauty that are pliable and ever-changing. with modern nutrition and medical innovation, the type of multi-system, multi-generational forces (thousands and millions of years of work) selecting for or against a certain bodytype are not as pressing, giving way to social and cultural rules. also our sedentary lifestyle, diets, and eating disorders such as bulimia/anorexia, amongst many other things have changed the ways in which we treat our bodies, much different from what we may have evolutionarily been "selected" to do.it's a standard misunderstanding of how the mechanisms of evolution, sexual selection and natural selection work, mistaking the the idea that "a peacock with the prettiest plumes will win the girl peacock" with how these mechanisms actually work in both the animal and human world.good try though.

quietriott 6 years 14 weeks

actually katie225, from an evolutionary standpoint, being thin could be an evolutionary disadvantage for women as a certain level of body fat is necessary to menstruate, sustain a pregnancy and the subsequent breastfeeding that most (non-western) societies dictate until the child is a toddler. a woman who is able to store more excess bodyfat while remaining active will also be able to survive the nutritional hardship of caring for a baby in the event of a decrease in available food resources by burning the excess stored fat. from an evolutionary standpoint then, these women will be able to endure food resource hardship, provide nutrition for their children, produce more children who will not only survive but go on to reproduce and eventually their genes would be over-represented in the gene pool. so in other words, our early human ancestors were likely not size zeros, but probably a larger, healthier size appropriate for their level of activity and daily stress on the body. the current obsession with extreme thinness is actually a projection of social and cultural values and standards of beauty that are pliable and ever-changing. with modern nutrition and medical innovation, the type of multi-system, multi-generational forces (thousands and millions of years of work) selecting for or against a certain bodytype are not as pressing, giving way to social and cultural rules. also our sedentary lifestyle, diets, and eating disorders such as bulimia/anorexia, amongst many other things have changed the ways in which we treat our bodies, much different from what we may have evolutionarily been "selected" to do. it's a standard misunderstanding of how the mechanisms of evolution, sexual selection and natural selection work, mistaking the the idea that "a peacock with the prettiest plumes will win the girl peacock" with how these mechanisms actually work in both the animal and human world. good try though.

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67 Comments

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