My take on anorexia

Eating disorders are more and more on the rise, and I think there are lots of factors that play a role in this.

Some see anorexia as a symptom of mercury toxicity, like Dr. Andrew Cutler, some see a connection between autism and anorexia. Sometimes it is also related to food intolerances or general gut problems. And of course, there are a whole lot of other reasons, like traumatic experiences or the media telling us you have to be thin to be beautiful.

Eating disorders are devastating. Not only does your body not get enough nutrients to fulfill all its tasks. It can damage your organs, and 1 out of 7 women with anorexia nervosa DIES (Eating Disorder Statistics).

We grow up in a world where it is "normal", not to like your own body. I am not a fan of the products, but the Dove Campaigns are really nice, to show us how wrong our self-image is.

Two weeks ago (April 2013) I took these pictures of me...

My old anorexic part of me screams: You are fat! And if you compare it to the modern picture of beauty which is told to us via the media, yes, I have few pounds too much.

BUT I weigh a normal weight, and the recovered part of my brain says: Hey, you are a 30 years old woman, you have curves, you are NOT overweight, your are NOT fat. You have a nice ass and you look sexy. YES, sexy!

I won't lie to you, it is not always easy to think this way, and it is impossible if you are starving your brain. That is the vicious cycle of eating disorders. The less you eat, the more your brain gets depressed and thinks you are ugly. Which leads to further restricting.

The only way out: EAT. THE. F***ING. FOOD.

If you restrict your calories, your metabolism will slow down, too, which in the end makes it even harder for you to lose weight, except if you eat even less food. If I would never had dieted in my life, I would not look the way I do today eating my current diet of around 2000 calories. I probably would be slimmer while eating even more calories. Because my metabolism would not be fucked up. Ever wondered about those slim people who can eat as much and what they want? Well, they never dieted, which keeps their metabolism up.

And by the way, the Venus of Milo has been described as the classical vision of beauty:

Her measurements: 

chest 86,4 cm

waist 78,7 cm

hips 103 cm

at a height of 165 cm

Those are almost my measurements! Okay, I have bigger boobs but that is totally fine with me ;) I have the perfect measures (and I did this only for this blog because I refuse to weigh and measure myself anymore!) of 100-80-100. Ha! 

So what has changed since then? Why is the classical vision of beauty suddenly not beautiful anymore?

I think there are so many reasons, and when it comes to eating disorders, there are even more reasons (see above).

Is it so that we can be better controlled when we starve ourselves to be thin? But then again, in many muslin countries (where you usually think women are more controlled - no offense to anybody!), the picture of a beautiful woman is mostly more rounded and fuller. 

Or do we western women want to appear like man so we can appear more emancipated and stronger and work in man's jobs?

Let me know what you think, why our picture of beauty has changed so much.