Eating Disorders and Body Image Blogs: What Some Are Discussing

A New Girl Guide Badge For Self-Esteem. Has Guiding Gone Mad?

As I was reading The Globe and Mail this morning, I came across an article written by the very talented Margaret Wente. Entitled "Not every girl can be a Winner," I was dumbstruck that the Girl Guides now have a self-esteem badge. Say what?

In my youth, I spent years as a member of Brownies and Girl Guides. I traipsed through the woods with the rest of the pack, trying to light fires by rubbing two sticks together in the pouring rain, suffering cuts and scratches and burns from campfires, getting lost in the wood (still can't figure out how a compass works), near-drowning in canoes on choppy lakes, and learning how to do the sheep shank and the round-turn-and-two-half-hitches knots.

Summers were spent at Girl Guide Camp building lean-tos and roughing it in the woods. It was a rough-and-tumble life and I loved every minute of it. Nary was a mention made of my having to study up to earn a self-esteem badge.

Read in full here.
2Medusa.com


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FTC Charges Hoodia Marketers

FTC Charges Marketers Of 'Hoodia' Weight Loss Supplements With Deceptive Advertising

The Federal Trade Commission has charged the suppliers of supposed Hoodia gordonii, also known as hoodia, with deceptive advertising for claiming that using their product would lead to weight loss and appetite suppression. In its complaint, the FTC alleges that the defendants not only made false and deceptive claims about what hoodia could do, but also, on one or more occasions, claimed that their product was Hoodia gordonii, a plant native to southern Africa, when it was not. The FTC has requested that the court order the defendants not to make false or deceptive statements or destroy documents pending trial. The Commission seeks to permanently bar the defendants from deceptively advertising hoodia, and to obtain disgorgement of the defendants’ profits from their hoodia sales. The defendants allegedly made false and deceptive claims when advertising their fake hoodia to trade customers who manufactured and marketed supplements.

Read in full here.
mariasols.com

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Another Death To ED

Sarah's Death at 19 Left Her Family Struggling to Understand the Power of an Eating Disorder.

By Caitlin Gibson
Special to The Washington Post
Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Leah's voice was calm on the phone.

I'm on my way home, she said. Sarah died this morning.

In the steady tone my best friend would use to say she had a flat tire or was late for class, Leah explained that she was about to board a flight to join her family as they prepared for her little sister's funeral.

Leah had known on some level that this might happen. She'd read the books, done the research and understood that girls with eating disorders got better, or they didn't. She saw Sarah as what she was: the everygirl of her illness, not immune because she was smart and beautiful, popular and athletic. But the knowledge that it might happen did nothing to prepare Leah.

Read in full here.
freedfoundation.org/blog

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Woman With Anorexia Issues Public Plea For Help

If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one. ~Mother Teresa

I think it’s a tragic conviction of the woeful inadequacy of our current health care system that a 20-year-old college student with anorexia who wants help has no other recourse than to turn to the public in getting that help. Karina Dewing of Cape Girardeau, Missouri today issued this plea in her local newspaper: I am a 20-year-old college student, I weigh 83 pounds. Shocking? What’s even more shocking is that I can’t get the help I need. There are no treatment programs in Cape Girardeau or the surrounding area for those who suffer from eating disorders.

Read in full here.
the-f-word.org/blog

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Freedom And Joy

More than once this weekend, I have found myself dancing around in my kitchen, absolutely filled with joy. I'm not even sure why, and I suppose that is the best part. I have no reasons. I just feel at peace with where I am at the moment. I'm making good choices and decisions, and that really hasn't happened in my life for a very long time. I'm not afraid to go to sleep at night because I fear what the next day will bring. I'm looking forward to the warmth of summer, the sunshine, and spending time with my family. I feel as if I can reach out and touch the changes in my life, and for once, not feel anxiety, apprehension, and worry over what may happen.

Read in full here.
hereandnow4angel.blogspot.com

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Values: Me vs ED

I did this exercise on values in a group at the EDU last year and it taught me some things about myself, so I thought I would share it. People with eating disorders often say that they have no idea who they are outside of their illness. I think it's really important to find out different things that make you *you* so that you can shove them in the eating disorder's face when it tries to convince you that you are nothing without it ;)

In the group we were given this handout called 'Choosing your values' from a book called 'Get out of your mind and into your life' (which is a great title, hehe). It had a list of different relationships (e.g. marriage, friendship) and aspects of every day life (e.g. work, spirituality), and the idea was to write down what sort of person you would like to be in that area of your life and then try and distill your answer down to one key phrase. These were my answers, with my most important values in italics:

Read in full here.
katie-underthestars.blogspot.com

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Eating Disorder Myth #26: You Don't Need Anyone

Rewind back to the Friday night before Easter, mid-meltdown while talking to my mom and sister.

My sister told my mom that she wants to support me in my recovery more than anything, but she needs to know that I'm really trying. This was really upsetting to me - she wasn't HERE when I was at the height of restricting. She had no idea how limited my intake really was, and what a big deal it is for me to be eating 2% yogurt instead of fat-free, or heaping avocado on to my sandwiches. Things that normal people would do without a second's hesitation are significant milestones in my journey to recovery.

Read in full here.
elle-dente.blogspot.com

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Raising An Eating Disorder-Free Child

In a recent study published in the Medical Journal of Australia, 101 children aged 5-13 who had been diagnosed with eating disorders were studied. 78% were so severely ill they had to be admitted to hospital. About half required nasogastric tube feeding and one third were given psychotropic medications such as anti-depressants. Only 27% met the diagnostic criteria for anorexia nervosa while half did not meet the weight criteria (which requires the patient to be less than 85% of their ideal weight for their height). 61% had potentially life-threatening complications such as malnutrition.

The study has shown that the criteria for diagnosing eating disorders in adults should not be applied to young children because they are not being recognised as having eating disorders until they are extremely ill.

The study also found that a quarter of the sufferers were boys.

Read in full here.
melindahutchings.blogspot.com

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How Big Are Those Robes

As you probably know, Supreme Court Justice David Souter has indicated his plans to retire later this spring, and, as it is in the great game of politics, pundits and commentators have been speculating about who will replace him. Names of several really fascinating people have been tossed around (including my boyfriend’s civil procedure professor, Judge Diane Wood), most of whom have been women.

But apparently, too many of them are fat women (h/t David.)

Within hours after the news broke that Souter was resigning, concerns arose that [Elena] Kagan and [Sonia] Sotomayor might be too fat to replace him. A commentator on the site DemConWatch.com noted that of the three most-mentioned candidates “the oldest (federal judge Diane Wood) is the only one who looks healthy,” while Kagan and Sotomayor “are quite overweight. That’s a risk factor that they may not last too long on the court because of their health.”

Read in full here.
happybodies.wordpress.com

* apologies for the multiple postings of this post as I tried to fix a glitch with the blog.
sources linked above