Eating Disorder Awareness Week

ETSU students have been challenged to focus more on what makes them beautiful and not what other people want them to look like. Speaking yesterday during the marking of "Eating Disorder Awareness Week," the coordinator of outreach programs at the Counseling Center, Kim Bushore-Maki, urged students to believe in themselves and not live in the shadows of other people.
"Let's focus on what makes us beautiful," she said. "Don't think of what everybody wants you to look like, as you are beautiful inside and out."
Bushore-Maki, who gets much pleasure in helping people look at themselves and appreciate their bodies the way they are, said that the time has come to forget fashion magazines and make-up shows.
"The media, through magazines and different make-up shows on television gives contrary pictures and information of what real people look like, she said. "Most of those pictures are air brushed, and they distort your mind, making you hate yourself when you look in the mirror."
She said research shows that fashion magazines have a negative impact, especially when you look at them and start comparing yourself to the models in the magazine.
Bushore-Maki noted that our society puts a great deal of emphasis on body image. Most advertising and media industries play a significant role in equating certain physical images with happiness and desirability in order to sell their products.
"Most of those magazines show pictures of supermodels, she said. "Most of them are artificial, and you don't have to look like one, as most of them have either had plastic surgery or their bodies air brushed. They are not natural, and most information is false."
Media images help create cultural definitions of beauty and attractiveness and are often acknowledged as being among those factors contributing to the rise of eating disorders.
Statistics show that an average American woman is 5-foot-4 and weighs 114 pounds, while an average American model is 5-foot-11 and weighs 117 pounds.
Most fashion models are thinner than 98 percent of American women.
Eighty percent of American women are dissatisfied with their appearance, and that is why 9-year-old children who are overweight have fewer friends, are less liked by their parents, are doing worse in school, are less content with their appearance and want to be thinner.
Bushore-Maki said a better body image can be attained only if you stop reading and adapting different cultural ways and trust in yourself more. She added that most of the magazines offer unrealistic beauty standards.
"Some beauty can't be attained naturally. That is why Americans are spending over $40 billion a year on beauty products. That amount of money could be channeled into different uses," she said.
A lot of money, time and energy is being spent on how we look. Instead of spending money on diet products, people should eat healthy food and do a lot of exercises. "Obsession about your body image can cause you to develop eating disorders," she said.
"You don't have to look like a super model. You are good the way you are, and that is why we take a day to help men and women to come and get information on whether they are eating healthy."
America spends over $50 billion on diet and diet-related products each year.
The event, which was also called "A Day Without Dieting, A Day Without Food Obsessions," was held to help students gain information about eating disorders and correct eating tips.
Eighty-one percent of 10-year-olds are afraid of being fat, and eating disorders affect 5 to 10 million females and 1 million males in United States.
Health educator Lisa Barnette said the media has played a key role in influencing how we eat, what we eat, and what we drive. Basically, the media controls almost everything we purchase.
"We want students to come and find out their body mass index and know whether they are normal, overweight, obese or extremely obese," she said.
Barnette urged students to accept their natural shape and size by resisting society's pressure to judge your body and other people on physical appearance like body weight, shape and size.
She also discouraged denying your body valuable nutrients by dieting or using weight loss products.
She urged students to use the revamped Blackboard web site more as they are adding a new Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD) screen into the system.
The Center for Physical Activity's coordinator John Kroll urged more students to make exercise part and parcel of their lifestyle.
"With exercise you can manage stress and more so physical activity is important as it makes us health and relieves tension surrounding us, he said. "We offer different activities, recently we have introduced ballet dance."
Kroll recommend students to be more active through doing a lot of exercises no matter what their size. This will help students physically, emotionally and psychologically.
"Manage your time well so that you can exercise once a day for less than 45 minutes or even three times a week," he said.