I went out to lunch today with my husband. I ate a lovely healthy meal (beef chili with tortilla chips and rice) the menu promised that my meal was only 5% fat.
Yes, like many people, especially people of my age, I have to watch my weight. Weight gain can cause heart problems, high cholesterol can cause strokes. Being too big is not a good idea, but an even bigger killer is being too thin.
I keep seeing pictures of young famous women who look like they've just come out of a concentration camp! They may think they look great, but all I see is, girls who are almost young enough to be my granddaughters who, probably, don't have that long to live! I will most likely out live them all and that is not right!
I saw a documentary on TV the other night, in which a British celebrity decided to try a diet aimed at getting down to a size zero, which is size four in England, in order to see how hard it is to do, and what the health risks are. Within weeks, she had lost her good looks, she looked ill, gaunt and tired. Her BMI, (Body Mass Index) had slipped to dangerous levels and she was living off her muscles! She lost the ability to concentrate, because her brain was also being starved. Her other organs were in danger of being affected and her immune system was becoming compromised. This was in the space of about six weeks! By the end of her experience, she was so different from the attractive girl she had been before the diet. Once the experiment was over, however, she went back to eating normally to put her weight back on - and we're not talking about a lot of weight, just a healthy weight, where she could eat decent meals.
The following day I read an article in a magazine, in which a heartbroken mother spoke of the tragic death of her seventeen year old daughter, after the girl tried to emulate her favorite female celebrities and get down to a size zero. Naturally, she then could not stop dieting, and she died of heart failure. All the promise she had shown. All the learning and the potential to make something of her life were wasted, because of this foolish obsession.
After seeing the documentary and reading the article, I just had to have my say!
This obsession with size zero needs to stop! I think a key to this, is the male population. My husband always says that he likes a bit of meat on a woman. I'm sure other guys feel the same way. My husband also says he hates looking at these skinny girls who look as though a breeze would blow them away... And once again... I'm sure other men agree. So I ask the male fans of these celebrities to write to magazines, websites, TV companies, to tell them that you don't like the size zero image. It's not sexy! It's dangerous! As well as this, if you have a girlfriend or wife who is becoming too thin, tell her she just doesn't look attractive anymore! It may sound cruel, but it's for her health that you are saying this. You don't want to loose her, do you?
I would also ask the sensible female population to stop buying any literature, which promotes the size zero image by printing photos of those girls, and I ask you all to email those magazines, to tell them you won't buy their publication anymore, until they stop showing pictures of these stick-thin women!
I do a volunteer job in a charity shop (probably called a thrift store in America) we have a lot of clothes which are a size 8 in England, so they may be a size 2 in America. When I see those clothes I wonder how anyone fits into them! We do not sell clothes for women, less than size 8. We just would not do it.
The very things that make a woman what she is are compromised by becoming too thin. If you are one of those women who want to get down to that dreaded size zero, you will find that your menstrual cycle will stop and your chance of conceiving a child could be gone forever, because you may go into an early menopause, from which, even if you put the weight back on eventually, you will not recover. Your brain, as I mentioned earlier, is also affected. You will loose the ability to concentrate, and it will prove harder to do simple tasks. However even though you have no energy, you won't be able to sleep properly, because sleep disturbances are a common side affect of extreme dieting. So ask yourself... “Do I want to make myself ill and possibly kill myself?”
I have found some websites to pass onto you. If you are overweight, you need to find out the healthiest way to diet. Find more information on topics.com
Please be sensible, and let's see some "proper looking people," instead of walking skeletons. Skeletons belong in the horror movies, not in real life!
