This is a piece from one of my favourite TV shows, Supersize vs Superskinny, a British show that explores different peoples' bad relationship with food, dieting, exercise and body image. A survey conducted in 2007 and 2008 in Australia found that one in 4 Australian adults were overweight or obese, and that there were just as many people that were overweight that were a normal weight (in other words, an estimated 38% of Australian adults are overweight.) Source: http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/web+pages/statistics
In contrast to this, a staggering 90% of 12-17 year old girls and 68% of 12 – 17 year old boys have been on a diet of some type due to issues with body image. (Source: http://thebutterflyfoundation.org.au/CMSPageDetails.aspx?CMS_Page_Id=77&Parent_CMS_Page_Id=4)
I find it amazing that us people, not just in America and Britain, have such a distorted view of what is healthy, and what is not healthy, from both extreme ends of the scale. Advertisements appear everywhere, 'educating' people about how to lose weight, what to eat, what not to eat, what will make you 'fat' etc... Could this sort of advertising be affecting our relationship with food? Moreover, could it be distorting it in such a way that these figures of obesity and eating disorders could increase even more with time?
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