Eating Disorder Talk

I know I’ve been writing a lot about media-influences on eating disorders. I am not blaming the media per se - I really believe there is a valid genetic predisposition for disordered eating - there will be a point to all of this media-attacking, soon.

Some recent reading has brought to mind this paradox that exists: encouraging healthy eating, educating the public about obesity risks, being open and removing taboo from eating disorder stories…all of these actions don’t seem to be doing a damn thing.

A recent study reported in the Journal of Consumer Research showed that participants who visited healthy food arenas will actually consume more calories, more fats and think they’re fairing better than someone who has traveled to McDonald’s for a BigMac. Read about the study, here.

Part of this is lack of education, which is understandable. It’s time consuming staying on top of what is healthy, what’s too much, what may kill you, what could prevent cancer, etc. You need a degree in nutrition and you need to devote some of your life to staying on top of the constant changes “they” put out.

Part of this is one-track ignorance. What I mean is to say that healthy living has been marketed so far past the point of most people caring - it goes in one ear, out the other. Sometimes, a few snippets of information are reserved for future reference and that’s where the danger seems to lie. Let’s use the aforementioned study as an example:

Participants were given the ability to go to McDonald’s for a BigMac or a 12″ Italian Sandwich from Subway. Subway visitors were also given the chance to supplement their sandwich with a cookie and fountain drink. We all know how unhealthy McDonald’s is, right? It’s greasy, it’s mass-produced, it may leave you wanting for quality and as a general rule, your burger will never resemble the advertisement. Subway, well, it’s obviously healthy - Jared Fogle lost weight via eating their subs and the company itself is owned by Doctor’s Associated Inc. So, should be easy-peasey - the people who went to Subway were obviously eating a healthier meal and probably took in less calories, fat and food than those visiting the arches.

Nope. Subway visitors usually got regular soda and a cookie, in addition to a 12″ sub - they averaged 56% more calories than Ronald’s visitors. Yet they estimated a lower intake. Look up what your favourite sub weighs in at, I dare you.

Part of this is also just plain arrogance, I think. People are too important, too starved for time, and too concerned with consuming and expending to actually just pay attention to needs. No one needs a 12″ sub, with three types of meat, cheese, condiments and potentially a cup of vegetables on it. With a cookie (or three - there’s a deal if you buy in bulk) and a 20oz. soda.

For an example, I used the USDA’s myPyramid application. After I plugged in my age, gender, height, daily activity level and intention of moving towards a healthier weight progressively, the resulted recommended serving requirements was overtaken by the experiment’s Subway meal:

• 70% of my daily grain needs;
• 33% of vegetable needs;
• 0% of my fruit needs;
• about 10% of my dairy needs; and
• my entire day’s meat requirements.

Yet we will all judge the person who holds weight or gains weight or even loses weight, because, well, obviously they don’t have healthy eating habits.

Obesity in North America, particularly in the States, is still rising. But even my country isn’t innocent, with Statistics Canada reporting that many age groups’ rates have doubled since prior to the 80s.

The CDC reported similar results - a jump from 15.0% in their survey which ended in 1980, to 32.9% in 2004. The site then quotes a goal of reducing the adult obesity rate to below 15% - and argues that rates are worsening.

This is reaching epic proportions at a time when disordered eating is also rising to epidemic-like levels. What’s the correlation?

I think it’s fear. The media, the governments, the neighbours who’s dog you watch pee on your lawn - everyone is a (often unconscious) fear-promoter. We are all afraid of not measuring up, being fat, dying young, dying broke, having the best toys, being the most loved, being successful, making people proud of us, being winners and most importantly, doing the right thing (the right thing can mean a million different things, it depends on whoever we think is going to judge us).

So, we eat twice the calories that we need at Subway? Jared says we’ll lose weight doing it.

Subway, consumers, McDonald’s, diet, healthy eating, obesity, food pyramid, Jared Fogle