Supermodel Kate Moss has received widespread criticism for a Nov. 18 comment that has been associated with encouraging unhealthy eating habits.

When asked what her motto is, Moss said “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels,” a phrase that is popular on “pro-ana” websites that promote self-starvation.

In a Nov. 19 article on the website of the British newspaper The Sun, Deanne Jade (founder of the UK’s National Centre for Eating Disorders) explained the danger in Moss’ comment:

The problem with soundbites such as this is that they become a mantra and have a power over you.

Kate's connection with Topshop [a chain of British clothing stores] means that she has become a style icon for millions of young women in the UK.

Young girls are her market and they are very suggestible and vulnerable.

For Kate to say what she has done is just one more nail in the coffin for those young women who are trying to hold on to their self-esteem no matter what their size is.

Labels: celebrities, pro-ana, support

A 44-year-old judge on a popular British dance competition show has revealed that he continues to experience eating and body image problems decades after struggling with anorexia. An Oct. 18 article on the website stv.tv provided the following details:

Strictly Come Dancing judge Craig Revel Horwood has confessed that he still has problems with his eating habits. The choreographer suffered from anorexia in his 20s.

He told Weekend magazine: "I think I've still got an eating disorder.

"I can eat healthily to a point then I will crack and binge - pizzas especially. I know I shouldn't, but I can't help it."

The 42-year-old admitted that the pressure of being a dancer led to have problems with his body shape.

Craig added: "When I looked in the mirror, I felt fat, so I didn't eat. Obviously, I couldn't have been fat at that weight, but I felt it."

Labels: anorexia, body image, celebrities, dance

Mia St. John is a boxing champion, mixed martial arts competitor, model, author, and businesswomen. She is also a survivor of a teen eating disorder.

A June 23 article on the boxing website The Sweet Science addresses St. John's struggle with an eating disorder, a challenge that she describes in her new fitness book, The Knockout Workout:

She tells that she had a "love-hate relationship with food and with her body," brought on by the insecurity of living with an alcoholic father who was "an angry and oftentimes violent drunk."

"At age 13, I became obsessed with my weight," she writes. "For every pound I lost, I felt as if I had deposited one more dollar in the bank. The skinnier I became, the better I felt about myself. Weight was the only thing I could control. By simply focusing on my weight and the caloric content of every known food, I could escape everything that was a mess in my life.

"I had so many reasons to self-destruct: my father’s unpredictable and explosive behavior, kids hurling racial insults at me and worse, calling me fat. I started to blame and resent my mother for being Mexican. I drank every day, all day, and not surprisingly was flunking my classes. Then, as if to torture myself further, I began to binge and purge. I ate whatever food I desired and then purged it by taking laxatives, throwing up, or even overexercising."

St. John is also the founder of the El Saber Es Poder Foundation, which her website describes as an effort "to empower Latinos by providing schools with better supplies, equipment and development of programs to help further education."

Labels: binge eating, celebrities, purging

Stephanie Pratt, one of the stars of the reality show "The Hills," has revealed that she has been struggling with the eating disorder bulimia nervosa. Pratt discussed her eating disorder in an interview that appeared in the June 17 edition of US Weekly magazine:

The 5-foot-7 23-year-old reveals she began bingeing and purging after watching a scene she shot with Lauren Conrad in 2007 after first joining the cast: "I was horrified. I remember saying, 'I can't believe how huge I look walking over to Lauren.'"

Another time, when filming in Hawaii in bikinis, the size 0-2 Pratt –- in a bikini and cover-up -- asked costar Audrina Patridge, "What looks better, shirt on or off?" Patridge said, "On."

Says Pratt, "The producers never put pressure on us to lose weight," but adds, "It's embarrassing working with skinny girls."

Though the cover of US Magazine features a photo of Pratt alongside the headline "The Hills Made Me Bulimic," she told MTV News that she didn't blame the show for her disorder.

"'The Hills' did not make me bulimic," Pratt said in a June 17 interview with MTV's Jocelyn Vena. "It was my own issues with self-esteem, and if anything, my life on 'The Hills' has only helped me get healthy, 'cause I know how lucky I am to have this job and to have the chance to be a role model."

Labels: bulimia, celebrities

Actress Scarlett Johansson, whose resume includes the renowned films The Horse Whisperer, Lost in Translation, and Vicky Christina Barcelona, made a recent appearance on one of the Internet's most influential political blogs to take the media to task for promoting unhealthy attitudes that she believes can lead to disordered eating.

In an April 13 Huffington Post article entitled "The Skinny," Johansson decried the intrusive attention that she believes may prompt film fans to undertake dangerous weight-management practices:

According to the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA), as many as 10 million females and 1 million males living in the US are fighting a life and death battle with anorexia or bulimia.

I'm someone who has always publicly advocated for a healthy body image and the idea that the media would maintain that I have lost an impossible amount of weight by some sort of "crash diet" or miracle workout is ludicrous. I believe it's reckless and dangerous for these publications to sell the story that these are acceptable ways to looking like a "movie star."

It's great to get tips on how to lead a healthier lifestyle, but I don't want some imaginary account of "How She Did It!" I get into and stay in shape by eating a proper diet and maintaining a healthy amount of exercise. The press should be held accountable for the false ideals they sell to their readers regarding body image -- that's the real weight of the issue.

Many health experts have noted an association between unhealthy body image and the onset of an eating disorder such as anorexia, bulimia, or binge eating disorder.

Labels: body image, causes of eating disorders, celebrities, pressures

A website that supports anorexia nervosa as a lifestyle choice has used a picture of British TV presenter Fearne Cotton as a role model, and Cotton said she is horrified. She discovered the picture while filming a documentary about the dangers of eating disorders.

Viewers [of the documentary] see her shriek: 'Oh my God, what the hell's my name doing there? That's the worst thing I've ever seen. ... To think girls would use that is horrific. ... I don't want to be associated with anything like this.'

Filming of the documentary also took Cotton to a West London school where elementary school girls complain to her about being fat or needing to diet. Cotton said she learned a lot about the complexities of eating disorders and hopes that her documentary will help one or two girls shift their attention from weight to something more positive.

Source: The Mirror (UK)

Labels: anorexia, celebrities, pro-ana

One of the latest fads among the Hollywood elite is know as the "revenge diet." Celebrities like Reese Witherspoon and Kate Hudson are turning to diet and exercise in response to failed relationships; losing up to 2 dress sizes in the process.

"To suggest that there is glamour in women violently manipulating their bodies to 'get revenge' on former flames is a grotesque and damaging argument...There are so many wonderful people trying to fight [the epidemic], but until the media stops glorifying stick women, there's going to be a struggle."

Surveys have found that more than half of girls in grades seven through 12 are trying to lose weight, and have dieted within the past year. Though blame for eating disorders doesn't rest entirely on the media, it does send young girls the wrong message. Source: Times Colonist (Victoria, B.C., Canada)

Labels: celebrities, influences, role_models

Two years ago, actress Aisha Tyler appeared in a Glamour magazine article titled "I Don't Want To Be Perfect!" which included two pictures of her - one airbrushed and the other un-touched. Since then, she's joined Dove's Self-Esteem Fund where she helps girls across the country learn to love their bodies - no matter the shape or size.

"The best we can do is realize and understand that [fashion model] images are manipulated so we don't get seduced into believing that a 5'11" model who weighs 112 pounds is either realistic or healthy, and also that these ideals of perfection don't even exist for that model, who probably starves herself, is unhealthy because she smokes to stay thin, and needs all that airbrushing and retouching because she has terrible skin and all the other problems that all real, living, breathing women have. Of course, there are obviously some women out there who were just born tall and insanely thin and stay that way naturally. And they have their own problems just like everyone else."

Tyler goes on to say that trends are shifting in the fashion world, as designers realize that most women can't buy a size zero, forty-thousand-dollar suit.

Good therapeutic boarding schools can help teens with academics as well as emotional or behavioral problems. Visit TherapeuticBoardingSchool.com for more information.

Labels: celebrities, influences, role_models