Diet Is a Four Letter Word

Too much emphasis is placed on the health risks of being overweight, while neglecting those of being underweight. But being underweight is as real a concern as being overweight—35 percent of dieters develop an eating disorder and approximately 95 percent of those diagnosed with anorexia nervosa are women. According to the Mayo Clinic May 2005 issue of Women’s HealthSource, underweight women run a dramatically increased risk of osteoporosis, decreased immunity, decreased muscle strength, menstrual problems, infertility, irregular heart beat, trouble regulating body temperature, and poor hair and skin quality. Furthermore, depriving the brain of needed nutrients and calories impedes its ability to function, eroding focus and contributing to depression and anxiety. Does this sound healthy to you?

The satisfaction factor.

Beyond the risk of developing an emaciating eating disorder like anorexia nervosa, women who restrict their calories also run the risk of having those restrictions backfire. Our bodies know that they are being deprived and will demand those lost calories later. When we eat the whole foods we crave, we produce a satiety hormone called leptin that tells us it’s okay to stop eating. To skip meals or cheat by consuming artificial or lower-calorie versions of food is really cheating any weight loss we might be striving toward because we will need to make up for those calories later. Rather than follow the advice of weight-loss specialists in the media, women who do need to lose weight would be far better served by following their own hunger and desire for food. When we avoid the foods that satisfy us because they are “bad” or “fattening,” we instead develop cravings that lower our self-esteem because they feel outside of our control. We then blame ourselves for not following what the media tells us is essential to our health.

Refusing reduction.

Are we nothing but numbers? Are we calories, pounds, dress sizes, and BMIs? Why does every women’s magazine, then, focus on our diets rather than what we do every day: the jobs we hold, the children we raise, and the mountains we climb, either literally or spiritually? We’ve reached a point where all of the emphasis on our “health” has actually come to undermine that health and the lives we need it for. Alarming statistics show that one out of every five women is diagnosed with an eating disorder, and even more have some kind of unhealthy attitude toward weight and eating.