Vanessa Beltran Velez

Sabatino Mangini
English 100 - 9:35
I-Search Paper: Draft 1
04/16/2015
Proposal:
Eating healthy, look good, have a confortable physical appearance, belong to a
place or culture, being confident and happy with myself was constantly my karma. Try to
fit in a society that always is demanding more and more made me to keep it up with all
those banal desires, which took me to a stage in my life where I never felt good enough to
belong to myself; phase that divided my life in two.
After I watched the documentary Food matters in class I really started thinking of
all the food Ive been feeding my body and the impact it brings to my body. The
documentary points out the importance of eating healthier and fresh in order to have a
vigorous body, but also contrast the quality of food we are getting out there from the food
companies, which is far away from a real-fresh healthy food. Sadly those companies
provide us what society demands, unhealthy food. The documentary as well as the room
for debate article I read from New York Times website shows the concern of lacking of
nutrients in the food and all the health issue the people are dealing with nowadays such as
obesity and malnutrition. However, what caught my attention from these two sources is
that this matter is not unknown everybody knows about the kind of food we are eating
and the effects it brings, but we dont do anything about it, we adjust. Currently, society
is more focus on media, how you look, what is your size, are you the right stereotype?
And so on. We do things in order to fulfill those situations or desires but we dont do
anything to fix our mentality and care about what really matter because food matters.

Ive always had disputes with the food. I care about what I eat and how much I
eat, my obsession of always eating right and healthier in order to keep my weight its
been a thing in my life since I noticed that if you dont fit in the prototype you dont
belong. Thats why, I went through eating disorder back on the day because I needed to
fit, to feel good enough, to belong to something, or somewhere that I wasnt sure what
exactly was it but my necessity needed to be filled and I settled my mind to live like that.
Eating disorder are more common than society think they really are; every year the cases
are increasing into our culture because society is needy and greedy of requiring a
stereotype of perfection, and we are playing this game somehow. People dont know
deeper about eating disorder until they go throughout them or experience them.
Therefore, my research paper goes toward to aware people about the epidemic of eating
disorders nowadays. Eating disorders are real, they exist, they surround us and they are
taken many people life as they go.

Process section:
As I went along with all these previous information about food and the
importance of eating right, I started gathering about any topic that really passionate me to
talk about. Putting my information together for my paper its been a journey so far. First I
watched the documentary food Inc, right after the professor show us food matters. Both
documentaries reflect the process and the relevance in how the food goes through
different stages before getting it in our table, and why its so harmful now.

Food Matters: you are what you eat documentary, James Colquhoun Carlo
Ledesma, Permacology Productions, 2008.

Food Matters is a Australian documentary that explores the world of

Orthomolecular Medicine and how it compares to traditional Modern Medicine. The
documentary begins with talking about how our food travels many miles before getting to
its final destination and by the time we buy it, it is at least a week old. The freshness of
our foods have drastically changed throughout time and the nutrients as well. The health
experts start with the issue of the soil crisis and how it lacks the nutrients for food to
grow in a healthy, natural way. Modern day chemists have found ways to optimize our
crops for faster, more efficient growth by using chemical what makes the food harmful. A
therapuetic nutrition specialist and author reveals to us many paradox ideas about raw vs.
cooked foods. Cooked has many effects on the body and the importance of eating 51%
raw food in our dishes. Another expert suggests many alternatives to our daily diets. It
was also mentioned that the medical field has a certain stigma about the use of vitamin
supplements within their practice. The use of vitamins, they said, could reshape the
economy of the medical field. They linked many immune disorders to the everyday,
unhealthy diets of our society. They lack of information given to the people it could be
cause of unexpected health effects.

Food Inc.: you never look at dinner the same way, Robert Kenner, Magnolia
Pictures,2008.

Food inc is an America documentary that examines corporate farming in the

United States, and goes through inside of the food producer and providers concluding that
agroindustry produces food that is unhealthy, in a way that is environmentally harmful
and abusive of both animals and employees. Also the film examines the industrial
production of meat (chicken, beef, and pork), calling it inhumane and economically and
environmentally unsustainable. Then, the movie moves toward the industrial production
of grains and vegetables (primarily corn and soy beans), again labeling this economically
and environmentally unsustainable. Concluding with the economic and legal power, such
as food labeling regulations of the major food companies, the profits of which are based
on supplying cheap but contaminated food, the heavy use of petroleum-based chemicals
(largely pesticides and fertilizers), and the promotion of unhealthy food consumption
habits by the American public. It shows companies like Wal-Mart transitioning towards
organic foods as that industry is booming in the recent health movement.

Then, when I get the assignment in room for debate I was so concerned that I
wanted to check deeper the food field; I read the article that I used for room for
debate about food and more questions start gathering in my mind. At the beginning I was
really focus on food and the way the food is being made and all the secrets behind the
production, but along the way I realized that my concern, and smooth anger about it was
because as a result of the way we eat, the society is suffering of healthy issues and obese
as a result; however, society doesnt do much to attack the real problem properly and
focus on what actually is killing people such a eating disorder as a result of what we eat
and the effect of that in our bodies, but instead they care about how you look and how

you need to be paying a high price for that. Therefore, I decided to change my topic and
move towards to the influence of the food and the hunger of the society that need to be
fulfilled. As a result I move my research toward to eating disorders and how common
they are. Its an epidemic that people doesnt know about it because they are just
something unusual no well known, until you dont see the familiarity to it. After all this I
went to Delaware County Community Colleges Library Guide to begin my search for
resources. I looked for full texts and peer reviewed articles on topics including Eating
disorders and reality eating disorders From those words I found many articles but only
one interest me. It wasnt available directly from school but I clicked on find it and I was
redirected to a Marie Claire website.

Starvation Nation: Inside a Groundbreaking Eating Disorder Facility, Sophie Moura,

June 20,2011.
The article emphasis that while America focuses on obesity, anorexia is claiming
new patients in record numbers. Its an epidemic that is comparing to AIDS. The lack of
attention of all these illnesses after they have taken many lives along the way has
smoothly catches the attention. The pursuit of thinness is contagious. Eating disorder
such as Anorexia and bulimia are attacking all age people with many symptoms as a
result. Eating disorders are been around since mid- 70s and strong show since early 90s
and now its still a myth the causes , treatments etc. (NEDA). Experts blame teen stars,
like Lindsay Lohan and Demi Lovato, who struggle publicly with eating issues, and say
the Web worsens the problem by supplying unhealthy images. All media influences all
the time to make this grow. Unfortunately, science hasn't kept up with the growing patient

pool. Research on eating disorders has always been underfunded, thanks to their
reputation as women's diseases of vanity.
Next I headed to Google scholar where I typed in similar phrases, except this time
I added" mental illness" Eating disorder in America types of ED. After collecting a
few more websites, I filter my search about the big impact and relevance of eating
disorder into society and the lack of information we have about it because this is a trend
is growing faster than expert expects. I found another two important articles.
Eating disorders: about more than food, U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services, National Institutes of Health, NIH Publication, No. (TR 14-4901),
Revised 2014. (http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/eating-disordersnew-trifold/index.shtml)
This article explains what eating disorder are, the types of it and a better
understanding of what is an eating disorder and how its treated. They are associated with
a wide range of adverse psychological, physical, and social consequences. Also describe
the types and how recognize them such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia and Binge-eating
disorder. Researchers are finding that eating disorders are caused by a complex
interaction of genetic, biological, psychological, and social factors. But many questions
still need answers. Researchers are studying questions about behavior, genetics, and brain
function to better understand risk factors, identify biological markers, and develop
specific psychotherapies and medications that can target areas in the brain that control
eating behavior. Ongoing efforts also are aimed at developing and refining strategies for
preventing and treating eating disorders among adolescents and adults.

WhenthetimecametostarttoputmyideasdownIstartedwonderingwhatkind
ofinformationisreallyimportantandrelevantforwhatIwaslooking,thetopicistoo
broad,soIneededtofilterit.TheresearchinformationthatIfunhelpedmetorealize
whatexactlyIwantedtotalkaboutinmypaper.

Developingmypaper
Eating Disorders-A Growing Epidemic
Rachel Craig's anorexia started when she was 11, in the summer of 1996. She'd
just finished fifth grade in Colorado Springs, 60 miles from Denver. An avid reader, she
loved Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time, and playing softball with her younger
sister, Anna. But the year had been hard for her. Her friends, a group of dancers, started a
new clique without her. At 4'10" and 100 pounds, she was self-conscious. Boys at school
called her fat; she felt like the chubby one in family Christmas photos. She swore that
sixth grade would be different. She'd be thinner. Popular. That summer, Rachel started
jogging three miles a day. Researching nutrition, she discovered what calories were. As
the months went by, she ate less. If she wasn't a little hungry, how was she going to get
thin? By sixth grade, she'd lost 30 pounds, bringing a solitary plum to school for lunch.
Any excitement she'd felt about being skinny was overshadowed by an obsession with
food. When not eating in front of her classmates at lunch became embarrassing, she
started making sandwiches diet bread, mustard, and lettuce so they'd think she was
normal, but after school, she'd get straight on the StairMaster for 45 minutes a day. By
Christmas, "I wasn't even aware of the world around me anymore. I was completely cut
off," she says. (Moura,2011). Sadly this is only one of the thousand of stories of different

people who suffer this disorder, who die before someone notices the significance of this
condition.
Eating disorders are not a fad diet or an experiment to lose weight, but they are
serious complex disorders that can take many years to recover from. Eating disorders
affect five percent of women and one percent of men in the United States. The South
Carolina Mental Health Department reports that five to ten percent of girls with eating
disorders will die within ten years of having the disease. ("Statstics Eating" INT) . The
death of tons of people most likely women has caught the attention of the media, experts
and society; they realized something deep is actually happening. However, this condition
is still so rare and not well explored yet. There are many reasons why this disorder is an
epidemic that is growing faster than expert thought and expect, and its taken lives as it
goes. Consequently, I will discuss three main reasons why I consider this epidemic is
growing faster, and furthermore we will be able to save more lives like Rachel Craig's
because no only Rachel needs help there are more people who lives with this condition
and they dont even recognize it because eating disorders is not only lack of food, its also
the excess of food with no nutrients.
Over the past 20 years, several articles have proposed a link between the
thin female beauty ideal and the muscular male body ideal portrayed in the media with a
range of psychological symptomatology including body dissatisfaction and eating
disorders. Studies have reported a significant change in the weight and size of female and
male models portrayed throughout the media in western society and the concept of the
perfect or ideal body(Katzmarzyk PT1, Davis C. ,2001). The stereotype of a perfect
body is to fit into a society that has been pre-determined by media or other external

factors that influence our perspective to perceive and believe that beauty is a tool of
idealization. Over time the sense of ideal size for mens body and womens body has
become an obsession, which considerably women are thinner and leaner and mens body
are stronger and more muscular. These cultural standards may well explain, in part, why
many adolescents and people in overall are preoccupied with their bodies and dissatisfied
with their body image, and are willing to try a variety of dangerous weight-loss practices
in their quest for the perfect body because everyday the standards are higher and people
need to catch up.
As the media plays an important role in the promptness of growing of eating
disorders as one of the main reasons, there is also the deficiency of healthy food and the
lack of knowledge of a good nutrition as a second cause. Eating disorders are one
category of mental disorder in which the individual have some problem with the food and
it brings a collateral effect of displeasing personal appearance and self-steem; for
example some may overeat (Obesity), some may under-eat (anorexia), and others may
vomit (ruminative disorder), but what unified them as a eating disorder is a problem with
food habits and also triggered by environmental stressors. The society is hungry for
belong and pleased all those banal desires that play with our beliefs and us, making us
slaves of our own body and principles.
"Let thy Food be thy Medicine and thy Medicine be thy Food" Hippocrates. Following the last statement, if the food is meant to be healthy and good for
our body why we attack our bodies when we consume it?. The quality of food we feed
our body is not what supposed to be the nutrients are less and the vitamins scarce, thats
why nowadays people are suffering of obesity because of lacking of nutrients. As a result

people lose self-steem and feel they dont fit into a stereotype anymore besides many
health problems they are carrying along. Is in this moment when a eating disorder start
developing. The word "epidemic" is often overused, but there's no better way to describe
the explosion of obesity in America. According to the latest numbers from the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an astonishing 68 percent of American adults are
overweight (meaning they have a body mass index, or BMI, of 25 or more) or obese.
About 18 percent of children and adolescents are seriously overweight as well.
(Woolston,2015). However, the lack of food is also harmful for our body. Have a balance
diet should not be a problem when the sources of food are the right ones, and as a result a
desired body will be there for granted.
Problems with the quality and type of food is the second of my three main causes
that leading us to recognize and creates eating disorders; the absence of information
about it, its consider my third main reason because when people dont know anything
about it becomes silence monster that attacks without noticing.
Researchers are finding that eating disorders are caused by a complex interaction
of genetic, biological, psychological, and social factors. But many questions still
need answers. Researchers are studying questions about behavior, genetics, and
brain function to better understand risk factors, identify biological markers, and
develop specific psychotherapies and medications that can target areas in the
brain that control eating behavior. Brain imaging and genetic studies may
provide clues for how each person may respond to specific treatments for these
medical illnesses. Ongoing efforts also are aimed at developing and refining
strategies for preventing and treating eating disorders among adolescents and

adults..( National Institute of Mental Health)

Doctors hope for a cure within 30 years a custom drug or early gene
intervention technique. Experiments comparing the brains of anorexic and
nonanorexic subjects via MRI and PET technology are promising because they
may reveal how anorexic brains really work. Until then, eating disorders' status
as mental illnesses mean families struggling to pay for treatment which can
cost up to $1,000 a day can take advantage of mental-health parity laws,
expanded by President Obama to omit treatment limits for psychological diseases
(Moura,2011).
Nowadays, people treat eating disorders as an illness or mental illness that can be
cured with drugs and therapies. Doctors are not sure what exactly is and the main reason
for this condition is developed. Many question need to be asked and solved in order to
attack the problem. Eating disorders exist and there are in our daily life and surroundings.
They are many kinds such a bulimia, anorexia, obesity and binge disorder. They live
between everybody as a response of what the society is offering and requesting. When
people dont know what should reverse many solutions will be given to many question,
but any will work. Therefore, the absence of information and clarity on it is what keep us
handy cup to defeat this condition; meanwhile this condition is growing faster and getting
strong. Eating disorder exists, they are real and as long as we dont know what to attack
people wont find the right method to use.

Sum up, Eating disorders are growing fast and are noticeable now. No only anorexia and
bulimia are consider disorders any condition that carries a problem with food is
considered as well. Being fat or skinny or slender is one of the results of this disorder,
but there are many symptoms and initial response to it behind it. The main reason is the
pursuit of perfection, which doesnt matter what it is because media, society and
environmental stressed triggered what we are been exposed right now. Even though
eating disorders are found in males, females are more likely to develop them. Five
percent of women and one percent of men in the United States are affected by eating
disorders. Pre-teen and teen girls are at a higher risk than any other age or gender group.
In a nationwide study, it was discovered that 12.3% of high school students have gone
without eating for 24 hours or more to lose weight or to keep from gaining weight.
(Youth Risk INT). The hunger of society of fulfills a stereotype and fake idealizations
are asking constantly for specific requirements and variations of lifestyle. it is a game we
play without noticing it. Nowadays expert recognize that society is suffering from trying
to survive all those changes, the human being is made for adaption and we adjust our
lives to it. Unhealthy food, society demands, lack of self-steem is few of the causes of
eating disorders, and these are boosting most of the people to live in certain way. This
condition is been around for a long time and after 50 years we are still asking why people
die as a result of eating disorders. How many lives as Rachel would cost us before we do
something to prevent those conditions?.

Bibliography
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Starvation Nation: Inside a Groundbreaking Eating Disorder Facility

http://www.marieclaire.com/health-fitness/news/a6229/eating-disorder-facility/
2.
Eating disorder: about more than food.
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/eating-disorders-new3.

trifold/index.shtml
Cause and effect: eating disorders

http://www.teenink.com/hot_topics/health/article/276564/Cause-Effect-Eating4.

Disorders/
Why is there an obesity epidemic

http://consumer.healthday.com/encyclopedia/weight-control-39/obesity-health5.

news-505/why-is-there-an-obesity-epidemic-644677.html
Thinness and body shape of Playboy centerfolds from 1978 to 1998.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11319667/
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The impact of eating disorders
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