Why are there so many teens suffering from some form of eating disorder these days? If they are not overweight, they are abnormally thin. What happened to moderation and balance?
There are too many people in this world who don’t have any idea when their next meal is going to happen that many of them have to sleep their hunger away. It is just too depressing, yet we see teenagers deliberately throwing up the food they have eaten or kids who are intentionally not eating because of some body image issues. We see teenagers and adults over-feeding themselves with food, eating to bury their trauma or some sort of emotional problems when there are people in other parts of the world who have to bury their kids because of lack of food.
These people could have used the foods these same teens and adults take have for granted. It upsets me to see these people not make an effort to practice moderate diet and exercise and keep their mental health fit to understand why they need the approval of others to feel great about their body and damage their own health for the sake of this superficial need of acceptance.
We don’t need to fly to Africa to help them or blame the media, supermodels, processed foods, fast food restaurants and whatnots for the abnormal growth of obesity and eating disorders in our world today. To change, we only have to start from within and slowly move towards our family members.
We start by NOT valuing physical appearance MORE THAN anything else
We want too look good and it’s normal. But the problem is that we value physical appearance more than our health to the point of discomfort by following unrealistic diet restrictions or engaging in impractical workout routines. When we act this way, we emphasize to our children - preteens and teenagers – that looks always come first. This encourages them to feel insecure and critical of their own appearance when they don’t get to the right size or achieve the industry’s standard of beauty. They learn to seek the advice from the “experts” more than they trust their own instincts. It leads them a belief that to always achieve that kind of perfection, they must ensure they don’t lose control with their diet so they throw all the food up - just to be safe.
On the other hand, when we keep stuffing ourselves with food to the point of obesity, it seems as if we don’t care about our physical appearance on the surface. Internally however, we are fighting a war against our looks and ourselves. It could be that we hate the way we look on the outside but feel powerless to change it so we stuff this emotion and dream to oblivion. It is still about body image because when asked if we want to lose weight, we will always say yes because we don’t like the way we look. But this just translates to food always making things better to our children and the cycle goes on.
But...
... if we instil the importance of health more than the size and weight of a person to our children early on, they will know what kind of food to eat and when to eat to achieve a healthy and balanced weight. They learn intrinsically what is good for their health and take care of their body.
...If we help them develop their confidence at an early stage by understanding them and allowing them to succeed on their own terms without pressure, they learn to believe in themselves and not the bullying of others.
...If we show them that life is all about helping others using their God-given unique gifts, they will understand that physical beauty, size, or weight is inconsequential to the beauty of what they can create for the people and for the world.
