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Old 09-16-2008, 11:39 AM   #3 (permalink)
snowy
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Location: Oregon
Quote:
Originally Posted by Halx View Post
I recently had a discussion with a rather thin and attractive girl about the culture of people who have been forced to clean off their plate at each meal. She was like me, never held to this task. Thus, she eats only what she feels is enough. The end result is a good looking body of normal proportions. Those who DO clean off their plate out of forced habit usually seem to carry more weight than they should. I figure this could be a contributing factor to obesity.
I think it has more to do with the portions put on those plates than whether or not they're cleared off. Most people serve themselves far too much food on gigantic plates. My Dutch grandparents and Dutch great-aunts and uncles all lived through the Dutch famine of 1944. To not clear your plate when eating with them was a big no-no, therefore you only put as much on your plate as you could finish. Big portions and stuffing one's self were also no-nos. You only ate enough to be full. Personally, I eat smaller portions and use salad plates instead of dinner plates.

We underestimate the effect that parents have on eating habits as well. This especially applies to eating disorders. Young girls see their mothers on diets all the time and want to emulate that behavior; in the long run, this leads to some serious issues with eating healthily and body image. It also applies to problems with obesity; if parents model behavior that suggests it's healthy to be lazy and eat a lot, then that's what kids are going to do.

I think both anorexia and obesity are very complicated issues. There are mental health aspects to both problems. Anorexia is often caused by a need to control a situation, due to a lack of ability to control other aspects of life. It's easy to say that obesity is caused by a "lack of personal responsibility", but I doubt that's really the case for many obese people. I'd be more willing to put money on depression as a factor, because people who are depressed lack motivation--and motivation is a key component to losing weight and improving one's self. Therefore, both issues should be treated medically and in a holistic fashion--meaning all of the issues that relate to the weight problem (be it lack of weight or surplus of weight) should be evaluated and addressed.

And I don't hang out with anorexics. I had two friends in college--one was an anorexic and the other had serious body image issues--and all of their problems rapidly became too much for me to handle. They wanted me to be their counselor. I'm not a counselor. It's not a person's weight that bothers me--it's whether or not they have issues with their body image. People with positive body image, regardless of size, are enjoyable to be around. People with negative body image, regardless of size, are depressing to be around.
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