Argumentative Essay Eating disorders are becoming a rising problem in many individuals regardless of their age or gender. Eating disorders are problems that revolve around abnormal eating behaviors and distorted beliefs about eating, weight or shape. They can be classified as psychiatric problems, which are considered a general medical condition. Eating disorders happen when individuals are obsessed about controlling their weight by controlling what they eat. Often, they judge their self-worth by their ability to control their weight/shape (Grilo 6). It is no secret that eating disorders are alarmingly common. Especially now, in this culture, where large corporations are “investing” in this industry as a result of their market research which can then only mean one thing – eating …show more content…
They often have an intense fear of fat and gaining weight and often have distorted views of their own body image (Shapiro 2). Thus, they resort to severe food restriction, periods of fasting and even various purging methods for weight loss (Grilo 5). On the other hand, Bulimic patients often binge-eat and then looking for methods to get rid of the food due to guilt by various purging methods (i.e., self-induced vomiting, misuse of laxatives or diuretics and excessive exercise) (Grilo 5). Although many say that the media causes eating disorders, studies have shown that the media is not the main cause of eating disorders. The media does have a part to play in causing the rise in eating disorders in today’s society. From an early age, we are exposed to the western culture of the “thin-ideal” and that looks matter (Shapiro 9). Images on modern television spend countless hours telling us to lose weight, be thin and beautiful. Often, television portrays the thin women as successful and powerful whereas the overweight characters are portrayed as “lazy” and the one with no friends (“The Media”). Furthermore, most images we see on the media are heavily edited and airbrushed