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Nothing but bones
The media's display of slender models
can push young girls into anorexia
Open any magazine and flip through television stations, and you will find sinuous, picture-perfect models and actors with trim, sculpted bodies that are the envy of those with normal figures.
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With the waiflike physique of Mary Kate Olsen spread across magazine covers due to her reported battle with anorexia, Jeanne Rust hopes that people will become more aware of the problem of negative body images. "It's becoming so prevalent that people are more comfortable talking about it," she said.
Rust says she hears children as young as 6 years old complaining about being fat and ugly. "Just like little mynah birds, they repeat what they hear at home," she said.
The best thing parents can do to counter media's singular image of beauty is to help children develop strong self-esteem. "They should not say, 'This makes me look fat' ... and should eat normally at home," she said.
Rust knows about eating disorders because at one time the former Maui resident suffered from anorexia, bulimia and compulsive overeating. Today, she owns and operates Mirasol, an eating-disorder treatment center located in Arizona. She was in town recently to offer workshops for health-care professionals.
"In my lifetime, I have done everything there is to do with food," she said. "My parents were both overweight binge eaters, and happiness in our house was a full refrigerator."
Her parents died of medical consequences related to their eating disorders, which presented Rust with the need to change.
"As a result of my personal history, my life mission has been to find a way of helping people with eating disorders learn how to become well," she said.
At her thinnest, the 5-foot-6 Rust weighed 102 pounds, "not dramatic but very, very thin for my height," she said. "I went from being anorexic to being bulimic and compulsively eating off and on. I had severe body image issues and was constantly worried about how I looked -- did I look fat? -- and constantly thought about food -- what I was going to eat, what I was not going to eat, where I was going to buy the food and what I was going to do with it (or not do) after I ate it.
"As long as my thoughts were focused on eating-disordered behaviors, I never had time to consider the state of the rest of my life or think about what I was feeling," she said.
"The greatest regret I have is that I was so self-involved that I was not emotionally available for my children. I was there physically but not emotionally. Now that I look back, in many ways my eating disorder was a gift because I can truly say that I know what people with eating disorders are going through, the despair that they deeply feel."
WITH EXCESSIVE dieting and body dissatisfaction on the rise, about 5 million American men and women of all ages, races and income levels have eating disorders.
"Eighty percent of fourth-grade girls have already been on a diet," Rust said. "Eighty percent of women are dissatisfied with their bodies. They are overconcerned with how they look."
Bulimia nervosa is an eating disorder in which a person binges, or eats a large amount of food all at once and then purges, or forces themselves to vomit, or takes laxatives.
Starving yourself by eating very little or nothing at all is called anorexia nervosa. People with this condition have a strong fear of body fat and weight gain. Binge eating disorder happens when a person cannot control her or his desire to overeat and often keeps the extreme eating a secret.
Others are often judgmental about the situation, said Rust. "They don't understand why (the individual) just doesn't eat."
She explained the disorders often serve as a coping mechanism in dealing with stress. "It keeps their attention from any pain that they may be feeling. They focus on food ... and do not have time to think or feel much about anything else."
She said individuals with eating disorders can spend 80 to 95 percent of their time thinking about food and eating.
But even if thinness is seen as healthy and beautiful in the eyes of the person with the disorder, the physical toll can be lethal. If the weight of those of average height falls under 90 or 100 pounds, they begin to lose cognitive functions, Rust said. "If the body doesn't get fuel, it begins to feed off the major organs, including the brain. Anorexics can become numb from not eating."
Many individuals with advanced eating disorders require repeated hospitalizations that can cost $30,000 or more per month for inpatient treatment, said Rust, who added people are typically treated, released and immediately relapse when reintroduced to outside pressure, she added.
"There is has to be some kind of turning point where they become aware of what is happening to them," Rust said, adding the best solution for the problem is in education and prevention.
"Mothers are the strongest influence on their daughters," said Rust. One-third of all women in the United States are considered restrained eaters, who "watch every little bite they put in their mouth." The message is that food is bad.
With healthy weight loss, people can be any size that they want to be, said Rust, and weight gain should not be concern in a normal diet incorporating whole grains, vegetables and fruits. "It doesn't have to be an extreme diet," she said.
Visit www.mirasol.net for more information on eating disorders.
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