Food And Weight Focus: Obesity In The United States

Food and Weight Focus “Now is the hour of our testing. Let us make it the hour of our victory—victory over ourselves.” –United States Food Administration slogan, 1918. The U.S. Food Administration was created immediately after the war began in 1917. The purpose of this administration was to create and ship food to our allies and neutrals in Western Europe during the war but during the first two decades of the 20th century, the way people viewed food and their bodies changed dramatically. Advances in nutrition science triggered a revolution in healthy eating. People were more concerned with eating what was nutritionally better for them. Since the Progressive Era (1890’s-1920’s), food choices have become a form of moral choices. Self-control, …show more content…
Interventions that draw attention to being overweight can accidentally cause more obesity. The more a person is targeted as overweight or obese, the more he or she may feel ashamed of his or her body. This can cause body dissatisfaction, which is another predictor of obesity and eating disorders.” (Laura Discipio) Studies have shown that nearly 80% of Americans watch television every day for an average of 3 hours but up to 10 total hours of ingested media. Most commercials have covered food on TV since its invention, whether it is fast food or weight loss advertisements such as Weight Watchers established in 1963, but Americans view ideal bodies, diet pills, exercise programs, weight loss programs, and food on commercials, pop-up ads on the internet, social media pages and advertisements and billboards like never before. Fifty percent of people are left with the urge to lose weight and/or are …show more content…
Until the 70’s, eating disorders were rarely heard of and rather uncommon. When looking at these facts, one wonders what has changed during this amount of time to cause the rise in this mental illness. A common factor in everyone who struggles with an eating disorder is comparison of their body. Usually, a goal weight or an ideal body image is set in the mind of the person who struggles with an eating disorder; especially among those who have anorexia nervosa. When one critiques and compares their body, there must be another body for them to compare to. Without a doubt, media plays a big role in triggering body comparison. Throughout time, models have been known to have the ideal body. When the average sizes of models change, so does the ideal body type. The measurements of supermodels have gotten significantly smaller since the 50’s while the rates of eating disorders have gotten significantly higher since the 50’s. The top female model of the 50’s and 60’s was Carmen Dell’Orefice. One of the top models in the late 2000’s is Candice Swanepoel. Dell’Orefice stood 5 feet and 10 inches tall with bust, waist, and hip measurements of 36-26-39 and a BMI of 18.5. Swanepoel stands 5 feet and 9 inches tall with bust, waist, and hip measurements of 33-23-34 and a BMI of 17.7. In the past 5 decades, the ideal body type has gone from a normal BMI to .8% under the normal body mass index, which is considered