As winter wanes and the land turns green, vibrant and full of life, thoughts turn to shorts, tank tops, flip-flops, and summer dresses. New Year’s resolutions have either become a part of life or faded into a distant memory.
Everywhere we look the media is portraying tanned, fit and happy people living the life of their dreams. Perfect little families are living in perfect homes, perfectly decorated and landscaped, in perfect neighborhoods. Every commercial for every product imaginable has beautiful, happy people in it. Life is one happy moment after another filled with perfect friends in a perfect setting. These are meant to represent the ‘normal’ people.
Then there are the commercials of the extraordinary people; they are ultra-thin, ultra-beautiful, and ultra-desirable. To look like one of those people could only be better if you were in a relationship with one of those people.
While the health (and consequently, the happiness) of our nation has been plummeting over the years, the media’s portrayal of the epitome of the average American has moved even more to the other extreme. This, in turn, has a very negative psychological effect on people.
One could look at it as subliminal conditioning to motivate people to strive to attain a lifestyle that they see in the media, but without the knowledge and the tools to help people to achieve it, it is a subliminal message telling them that they can never have those things. It’s telling them that they are somehow inferior or not deserving of living that ‘perfect’ life.
That’s one of the major contributors to eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia, and compulsive overeating. Eating disorders develop from an effort to self-medicate with food. While the eating disorders all are a little different from each other, they are all rooted in psychological beliefs around body image and food.
And every day media’s message is being re-enforced that happiness, i.e. the perfect life, is only for perfectly sculpted individuals. It’s a dangerous message that creates misery, disease, and in some cases death. Even when a person does not have an eating disorder, they feel powerless to control their own weight. And consequently, this feeling extends to their children.
And yet, there is a plethora of information available to everyone who has access to the internet. While the topic of self-help has turned into big business, society seems to be split down the middle when it comes to decision making. The ease of accessing seemingly boundless amounts of information on virtually every topic imaginable likely plays a large part in this. For some people, the availability of large amounts of information makes them feel empowered to question what they have been told, and to make their own decisions based on the information they have gathered. For other people, the same information makes them feel overwhelmed and indecisive.
When it comes to the topic of health, there are many approaches to getting and staying healthy. Unfortunately, the first thing that people associate with good health is achieving a particular weight. That’s due, in part, to doctors telling their patients in which range of weight they should be. That is not a bad thing; the body mass index (BMI) is a helpful tool for establishing a healthy weight.
Society has, however, caused a fixation of happiness that is intimately tied to an ultra-fit, and sexy image. Companies are responding to the fact that two-thirds of Americans are overweight. Clothing sizes have changed to make it appear that consumers are not getting bigger. What used to be a woman’s size 10 thirty years ago is now labelled size 6. Form fitting “skinny” pants can now be found in all sizes available.
There is a real contradiction between the image being portrayed in the media of the ideal life, partially defined as being thin and beautiful, and what the consumer product manufacturers are telling people is fashionable and acceptable. From this perspective, the gap between fantasy and reality grows larger, along with America’s waistline.
Young people are very self-conscious about their appearance, and they are easily influenced by what they hear and see. Many high school athletes go from, what may be the best shape of their life, to feeling overwhelmed by the pressures of adulthood. Without proper guidance, it is just a matter of time for these young adults to gain weight and become brainwashed about what real happiness is.
In place of the clinically defined and studied eating disorders such as bulimia and anoxeria, is the condition that most Americans seem to be afflicted with; and the modern food system is all too happy to do its part to drive it. People are seeking a temporary reprieve from the sadness that they feel in their failure to become one of the perfect happy people living the perfect life that they see on television and internet commercials every day, through food.
The fat, sugar, and carbs found in processed foods is like an opiate to the brain. It produces a temporary feeling of wellness that is as powerful as cocaine. It produces wicked cravings, and if indulged in regularly will in the very least lead to weight gain, lethargy, digestive issues, sleeplessness, and joint pain. Over time, serious health disorders will occur.
Even the most health conscious people give in from time to time to indulge in some food or drink that just makes you feel good. An occasional splurge is not going to ruin someone’s health. It may be detrimental to an athlete in training, but for the average person, there is no great harm in it.
There is a newly immerged condition that has not yet been classified as a true eating disorder. Orthorexia nervosa is what they call an obsession with eating only the healthiest food. Individuals with orthorexia are continually analyzing the food they eat for ways that it may be unhealthy. They may feel a sense of guilt or self-loathing for eating something not healthy enough.
Orthorexia can become all-consuming in the way a person lives their life and spends their money. It can isolate them from society, and cause them to feel that they must be in complete control of their diet. Through this distorted view of food, malnutrition often results. As with other eating disorders, rehabilitation is a difficult process.
As a society, more education needs to be done on how the food we eat affects our health, but also, food needs to be separate from our perceived happiness. Education about wellness is equally as important as education about food. Less emphasis needs to be placed on the number on the bathroom scale, and more emphasis on quality of life.
The healthcare industry is expanding into helping people learn how to lead healthier lives, but more connections need to be made with all aspects of life. Just because a person eats well and gets some exercise doesn’t mean that they are healthy or happy.
Certified Integrative Nutrition Health Coaches are part of the Health and Wellness Coaching field and are trained to recognize areas of a person’s life that are out of balance, and to work with that person to help them achieve true health and wellness. A skilled professional will help create meaningful and lasting changes that will bring balance to all aspects of daily living.
By learning how to take charge of our health and happiness, we can begin to make positive changes in our children’s lives. It is far easier to learn something the right way from the beginning than to have to unlearn all the bad habits that we have been practicing for years. What greater legacy can you leave than to teach others how to have the best quality of life possible?
If you would like to learn about becoming an Integrative Nutrition Health Coach, contact me at Melissa.Cornish@YourTotalHealthExperience.com
References
Eating Disorders. (2014, October). Retrieved from Kids Health: http://kidshealth.org/en/teens/eat-disorder.html
Eating Disorders: About More Than Food. (2014). Retrieved from National Institute of Mental Health: http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/eating-disorders-new-trifold/index.shtml
General Information. (n.d.). Retrieved from NEDA: http://nationaleatingdisorders.org/general-information
Kratina, K. (n.d.). Orthorexia Nervosa. Retrieved from NEDA: http://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/orthorexia-nervosa
Orthorexia: An Obssession with Eating Pure. (2015, June 01). Retrieved from Eat Right: http://www.eatright.org/resource/health/diseases-and-conditions/eating-disorders/orthorexia-an-obsession-with-eating-pure
