Trends and fashions are dictated from all different angles - magazines, TV shows and advertisements. We are told that slim is sexy. Thinness rules!
It is expressed that larger people have a large problem. In the United States, four out of five women are dissatisfied with their appearance. Half of the normal-weight white adolescent girls and three out of four normal-weight women believe that they are overweight.
A 30-year survey (1959-1988) of Miss America and Playboy magazine poster girls displays an ever-increasing pressure on women to be thin. Another study reported that 70 percent of the tested women felt more depressed and angrier after looking at thin models in fashion magazines than before viewing the images.
The immense stress to which girls and women are exposed explains why the average age a girl starts her first diet has fallen from 14 to eight over a 20-year period.
If the Body Mass Index (BMI), an arbitrary tool to measure weight, indicates that you are obese or over the normal weight, voices cry out that your health is in danger.
A popular presumption, supported by major health institutions and the media, is that overweight and obese people have an unavoidable shortened life span and are unhealthier than thin people.
Allegedly, obesity is a threat to health. It might be quite striking to hear that fat in certain regions of the body is actually beneficial to health. For instance, thigh and hip fat has been proven to provide protection against cardiovascular disease, diabetes and different types of cancer. However, obese people are encouraged to lose weight. Here the problem really begins.
Contrary to popular belief, most diets are detrimental to health and will eventually increase the body weight. Most American dieters wind up in the much-feared yo-yo effect. Shortly after a person has ended a diet, he or she would regain either the same or often more pounds, regardless of how much weight was lost.
Our bodies are structured to store energy for times of malnutrition. Therefore, if the body is exposed to a low supply, it will store more when it has the next chance to do so. In terms of nature, this post-diet regaining of weight is a success. Dieting, then, is a thoroughly unnatural conduct.
The medical trouble with this is not the recurring weight gain, but rather the diet itself. This is because dieting frequently sets the stage for bingeing, particularly on foods that are not exactly what we would call heart-healthy. Tests have shown that health problems like diabetes, hypertension and coronary heart disease occur only after losing weight. Fifteen published studies have shown that weight loss increases the risk of premature death by up to 260 percent. Bluntly: dieting kills!
A person's ideal weight cannot be measured by either an index or by comparison with other people. Every individual body fluctuates naturally depending on various factors, such as stress, pregnancy or cycle.
The environment influences us constantly, but we do not need to support what is bad for us. Go for a walk! That releases endorphins, happy hormones.
Information from - raderprograms.com/media.htm; Berg, Frances M. 1994 : Health risks of weight loss, 3rd edition; Gaesser, Glenn A. 1996: Big Fat Lies: The truth about your weight and your health; Daniel, Eileen L. (ed.) 1996: Taking Sides: Clashing views on controversial issues in health and society, second edition.
