27 Mar 2009
Our Disordered Eating
How many of us have already given up going to the gym we
signed up for at the beginning of the year? How many of us are avoiding the
scales or embarking on yet another diet? And how many of us are scarfing
protein drinks and in that gym seven days a week, or throwing up most of what
we eat?
Eating Disorders Week had the media all fired up about
eating disorders again, raising awareness about these painful afflictions, but
also adding to everyone's anxiety about food and body image. According to
Bodywhys, research estimates of male sufferers range from 15-25 per cent; they
don't break it down into straight and gay, but some research indicates that gay
men are disproportionately represented, particularly in that form of eating
disorder which focuses on over-exercising and muscle-building.
Despite increased awareness, eating disorders remain
mysterious. Many of the 'risk-factors' suggested seem so broad as to explain
nothing. Who hasn't been on a diet? Who doesn't fear weight gain? And who has
not obsessed to some extent about their appearance, weight and food? We don't
seem to register that people diagnosed with eating disorders are just the tip
of the iceberg that is all of us.
An excellent Irish Times article by Fiona McCann on
her journey through anorexia showed a picture of her as a pretty, slender young
woman, but left it to her to describe what she once looked like: 'hollowed
eyes, a nose out of all proportion and oversized equine teeth.' Her description
instantly brought back the image of a college friend - it was the teeth that
struck you most, and the huge knees. It was the first time I'd ever heard of anorexia,
but soon I was seeing it everywhere.
The '60s taste was for doll-like 'girls', with huge eyes
and prepubescent figures. (Sound familiar?) It was a hard look to achieve if
you weren't born that way, but it was never all about image. It was a time when
women were not sure what they were supposed to be; they had the education and
the jobs, but they were still expected, as dependents of men, to accept lower
pay and go home and cook the dinner. Women who found that they could suppress
their appetite had discovered there was one thing they could control, and
found it too scary to stop.
I think a feeling of confusion and powerlessness is at
the heart of eating disorders, and when it comes to having a sense of control
over your life, not a lot has changed since the '60s. Until the middle of the
20th century, most people, even if individually powerless, could rely on
certain social certainties. Then these began to unravel. In their place came a
focus on the individual - as Thatcher infamously said, 'There is no such thing
as society' - and with that, a sense of insecurity, competitiveness and
self-scrutiny. The incidence of eating disorders rose, and among men and
children as well as women.
The images of 'perfect' bodies in advertisements and
popular culture are widely blamed for the rise in eating disorders, but I think
they merely reflect what is going on - the increased stress on individual
achievement and on the body as a site for indicating status. When everyone (of
course it never //was// everyone) has the car and the house and the holidays,
what is there but your appearance to show that you're a success?
It's all about lifestyle - when we all did hard physical
work and walked everywhere, we hoovered up the meat, potatoes and suet puddings
and stayed as fit as fleas; only the idle rich got fat. Now, for the first time
in human history, being fat is seen as the mark of a loser, and we all carry
huge anxiety about it. Apart, that is, from the lucky few with unthrifty genes
which have survived the millennia against the odds, and the unlucky millions
who don't have enough to eat.
In the struggle to compensate for our lack of physical
activity, we have become fearful of certain foods; a two year-old I know
thought his obviously pregnant mother 'had eaten too much chocolate'. Saturated
fats are particularly feared, but where's the taste or satisfaction in lean
steak or non-fat yoghourt? Low fat diets keep you constantly unsatisfied, and
most of us now eat in a way which has little connection with our appetites.
We are eating in the most denatured way in human history.
Eating to excess is an atavistic instinct - it made up for the times of famine.
As food got more plentiful, people regulated their intake by eating certain
things at fixed times of day, and knew when they'd had enough. Now we in the
west no longer fear hunger, we have to rely on our appetites to keep us to a
healthy weight, yet we have overwhelmed them with our anxieties and confused
them with over-refined food and diets - which the body reads as famine. People
diagnosed with eating disorders are not the only victims of the disordered way
we all eat.