30 July 2008

Food dysfunction death match: obesity vs. anorexia

In the interest of keeping it real, I ate an irresponsible amount of ice cream while drafting this.

The press loves obesity and anorexia. Is there anything more perversely fascinating than how other people look, what they eat to make themselves look that way, and how it screws up their lives?

As with everything, it's funny until you have kids. Especially girls (Reb. Mary, your day is coming, DV).

1. We all know overweight kids are miserable. We play outside and don't buy Twinkies, but we never use the f-word because

2. we don't want our daughters to hate themselves and stop eating,

3. and although it doesn't seem like a good idea to tell our kids how beautiful they are all the time,

4. what happens when evil people tell them otherwise (whether directly and personally, or via Disney Princesses)?

5 comments:

Susan said...

>>4. what happens when evil people tell them otherwise

Uhhhhh, ban them from ever seeing their beautiful grandchildren again, unless they've got laryngitis?

Dawn said...

I'm telling you, this (&cet.) is why we need Mary.

Lauren said...

I've read this many times, but it seems like families who eat dinner together regularly have children less likely to develop eating disorders. Imagine that! When families spend time together, they have less issues. http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSCOL97025820080109

Reb. Mary said...

I'm counting on y'all to hammer this stuff out before we have a girl of paranoid-able age. Might be a reason God has started us with 3 boys...

Karin said...

Our eldest has more of a metabolism problem with two parents who grew up being able to eat anyone under the table and not gain weight. I really don't think she TRIES to be so skinny, she just is. Then....we don't seem to have the time or energy to make enough yummy food with this crowd of kids to manage to stuff ourselves or herself to gain some needed weight. Sigh. Yes, the boys will eat whatever they can get their hands on and they too are skinny, but no one seems to worry too much about them.