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Thursday 22 March 2012

The sins of the fathers shall be visited on the sons

Or rather the sins of the parents shall be visited on young women.....

WE ALL KNOW ABOUT HEALTHY EATING.  It is rammed down our throats every day.  Genetically vulnerable children are forced to watch propaganda films about healthy eating and exercise at the age of 10.  The multimillion pound diet industry continues to scare - or should that be fund? - governments and scientists into issuing wildly inaccurate statements about obesity.

According to the latest figures, some 15% of Australians are morbidly obese.  The number of men is more than women, which means that around 7 out of a hundred women in Australia are morbidly obese.

The latest research to come out of Australia suggests that 8 women in 100 have suffered from a serious eating disorder in their life time.  Whilst I am aware that there be some cross over between eating disorders and obesity, it should be noted that most bulimia and BED patients are of a normal weight.

Why, oh why, are we persisting in promoting the diet industry to adolescent girls, the most vulnerable group?  Diets don't work.  The vast majority of people lose and gain the same 15lbs over and over again during their lifetime.  There are the 1-2% who develop anorexia, the psychiatric disorder with the highest mortality rate but, hey, unless you understand that an eating disorder is a brain disorder, you just disregard them as stupid willful teenagers, right?  We must all persecute the overweight and force them to go on a diet, adding millions more to the coffers of the diet industry.  Talk about hamsters on a wheel.

I am more than aware that eating disorders in young men are rising, horrifically.  However, no one has brought to my attention a conference for boys' schools which features a representative of Jenny Craig diet bollox......

So Ms Catherine Misson of Melbourne Girls Grammar School, why don't you line up a hundred of your girls in front of you and decide which 8 are going to be the ones who are going to suffer (and maybe die) from an eating disorder and which 8 are likely to be morbidly obese?  Once you have looked at those 15 faces, perhaps you will look at the other 85 pupils who will probably spend the rest of their lives feeling inadequate and overweight, whilst writing a cheque to Jenny Craig's representative for all she is doing for their self-esteem?

1 comment:

  1. Dear Charlotte

    Thank you for your email.

    The Alliance of Girls' Schools Australasia Biennial conference is for educators and leaders in girls’ schools. The speakers have been selected to promote discussion about the issues facing girls. Please visit the Alliance website for information about the conference and the Alliance.

    Kind regards

    Jan Butler
    Executive Officer
    www.agsa.org.au

    ReplyDelete