eating disorder assignment

This is an assignment for Nutrition. on the Order instructions below I uploaded a file where instructor mentions everything that you need to start this paper. also uploaded the powerpoint as she mentions ” Name the four factors that can contribute to the development of eating disorders. This comes directly from the PowerPoint slides/presentation. ”
and this is the TED talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73SXX0w4eY8&t=40s

ANSWER

Eating Disorder Assignment

Introduction

Eating disorders are considered diseases in which individuals experience adverse troubles in their eating behaviors and associated feelings and views. Considerably, individuals with eating disarrays concentrate on their body weight and diet (Salafia, Jones, Haugen, and Schaefer, 2015). This paper will focus on raising awareness and prevention against eating disorders development and the factors that contribute to the development of eating disorders.

Factors that Contribute to Eating Disorders

The combination of physical, genetic, psychological, and social factors has contributed to the development of eating disorders. Genes play a very big role in eating disorders since they are linked to personality behaviors. Genes are thought to be the highly heritable and occur before the onset of the eating disarray. These traits comprise emotional instability, perfection tendencies, obsessive thinking, rigidity, and impulsivity. Eating disorders are biologically inherited and tend to run in families. Societal pressures have contributed to eating disorders. Personal worth and success have often been linked to physical beauty. The desire to feel accepted and to succeed has fueled the behaviors that are linked to eating disorders. Other social factors that can contribute to eating disorders include family, peers, culture, and meal patterns. These factors greatly influence individual food choices thus leading to choosing food that is not only determined by nutritional needs.

Psychological issues such as feeling a lack of control, low self-esteem, over-stressful issues, struggling with mental problems such as anxiety, depression, and feeling inadequate can trigger eating disorders (Salafia, Jones, Haugen, and Schaefer, 2015). The physical environment has also been linked to the causes of eating disorders. Physical factors such as ethnicity, gender, and culture in an individual’s life can contribute to eating disorders. For instance, the exposure of media and parental messages can contribute idealization of poor body image which may result in a different form of eating disorder due to comparison.

Helsaka is a 16-year-old who lived at home with her younger sister and parents. Throughout her teenage years, she has had a normal weight but has been worried about her shape and body weight. She has grown up comparing herself with other girls and women that she meets or see. She considers herself too heavy and has begun to diet. She has gone to an extent of becoming a vegetarian and begun to cut out most foods from her diet. She spends most of her time worrying about her shape and body weight. Time spent on other activities has been shifted to body weight concerns. With time Helsaka has appeared very thin which has led to her parent’s demand for a doctor’s evaluation. She might be diagnosed with an eating disorder, anorexia due to low food intake and low weight. This scenario illustrates the effects of social factors and psychological factors on eating disorders. Helsaka has been overstressed by her body weight and shape which led to low food intake.

Social factors such as body dissatisfaction, dieting, and wanting to be thin are all factors that contributed to an eating disorder. Social beauty standards have promoted eating disorders since they encourage the unrealistically thin body. The aspects of cultures have associated thinness with positive attributes such as health, attractiveness, success, and love. This has encouraged her significant weight loss, feeling guilty after meals, and counting her calories. Her desire and strive to grow thin might result in an eating disorder. Women have been greatly affected by eating disorders more than men. Most women have focused on dieting to maintain their body weight and shape. Excessive weight loss has often led to positive reinforcement. The desire to have a good look and affirmation has driven me to diet more severely which can result in an eating disorder.

Health Promoting Behaviors

Health-promoting behaviors are considered positive approaches to life and a way of boosting self-actualization and well-being. Health-promoting behaviors lower morbidities, prevent diseases, lower healthcare costs, and improve the quality of life. There are four major health-promoting behaviors which include regular exercising, moderate drinking, eating fruits and vegetables, and avoiding smoking and tobacco use exposure (Golda, 2013). Tobacco use has been the leading cause of premature death in the world. Therefore, avoiding smoking and tobacco exposure such as cigars, cigarettes, smokeless tobacco and preventing secondhand smoking will effectively promote a healthy lifestyle. Maintaining a healthy diet entails eating fruits and vegetables every day.

The current dietary guidelines have recommended eating fruits and cups of vegetables depending on gender, age, and the amount of exercise (Conner and Norman, 2017). Engaging in regular exercises is one of the most essential contributors to health. This enables one to gain and maintain a healthy weight while adding to the health of muscles, bones, and joints. Alcohol consumption has been linked with a variety of long-term and short-term health risks. Therefore, avoiding or moderate drinking can be healthy and can lead to a healthy lifestyle pattern. For instance, moderate drinking has been linked with less risk of cardiovascular disease.

Over the years, I have focused on health-promoting behaviors such as engaging in regular exercise, avoiding alcohol and smoking, and eating fruits and vegetables almost every day. However, I still need to improve the consumption of fruits and cups of vegetables every day to ensure a healthy diet. These behaviors have significantly improved my health. There is a need for teenagers to improve their health promotion behaviors to enable them to increase, improve and maintain their health status.

Medical Fat Shaming

With regards to the article, health interventions depending on the body weight is a form of body shaming. Therefore, the health interventions for the two patients will be similar. The health intervention would be depression treatment since these symptoms are linked to the likelihood of experiencing depression. Focusing on one’s appearance during health intervention leads to body shame during clinical interventions. There would be no difference in health intervention for the patient with a larger body and socially acceptable body since they have offered similar concerns of depression, headache, fatigue, and backache.

Digitally Altered Images

Digitally altered images have greatly influenced the construction of ourselves. The altered images have led to body image disturbance due to beauty aspirations and media deception of appearance (MacCallum and Widdows, 2018). These have led to emotional challenges such as depression and distress as well as dysfunctional eating behaviors and appearance-changing behaviors. Digital alteration has led to a more unreal and idealized appearance due to the issue of building higher expectations of what is good enough, normal, and perfect. Most of the images that appear on magazines, billboards, print, Televisions, and social media have been altered.

The image of America’s Ferrara’s being pasted on another woman’s body for the phony Glamour cover stuck to me most since it indicates digital manipulation of appearance. The altered images are retouched, remove blemishes, and improved body contours. There are various aspects of appearance that the media try to convey. For instance, on billboards and magazines, they are seen taking women’s faces and putting them on completely different women’s bodies to indicate a perfect body image. This has greatly affected teenage girls who are seen severally on the streets protesting against altering body shapes in photos featured in billboards, magazines, and social media. There is a need to raise awareness on digitally altered images to ensure less comparison and consequent body dissatisfaction. Paying attention to the altered images will lead to feeling less relevant and negative social comparisons that criticize our appearance. Social media will be an effective way of creating awareness about digitally altered images to the affected individuals.

Conclusion

In summation, eating disorders impact people of all kinds. The risk factors for all eating disorders include a range of psychological, biological, and social-cultural issues. These factors tend to interact differently in various individuals which means that two people with the same eating disorders can have diverse experiences, perspectives, and symptoms. There is a need to focus on the detrimental effects of digitally altered images and body shaming due to their detrimental effects on one’s mental health and body image. Therefore, raising awareness and protest against eating disorders that have harmful effects on health and well-being.

References

Conner, M., & Norman, P. (2017). Health behavior: Current issues and challenges.

Golda. (2013). Why It’s Okay To Be Fat: Golda Poretsky at TEDxMillRiver. Ted Talk. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73SXX0w4eY8&t=40s.

MacCallum, F., & Widdows, H. (2018). Altered images: Understanding the influence of unrealistic images and beauty aspirations. Health Care Analysis, 26(3), 235-245.

Salafia, E. H. B., Jones, M. E., Haugen, E. C., & Schaefer, M. K. (2015). Perceptions of the causes of eating disorders: a comparison of individuals with and without eating disorders. Journal of eating disorders, 3(1), 1-10.