July Summary

I personally chose this article because I believe that eating disorders do not necessarily “go away” in terms of an individual’s mental status in that area, similar to the idea for alcoholics. I also find it difficult to determine when is the appropriate time to educate on disordered eating. In this question you could either be faced with bringing in the subject too early and invoking fear or possibly undesired interest, or too late and be unable to prevent a problem’s development.

Question 1
There was excellent insight on this question. A lot of people agreed that yes this age group did meet the needs for the original question at hand. Also many of you suggested looking at the age groups of school attendants in younger ages as well. I agree with this and believe, especially in the world of today, that dangerous eating behaviors are starting far before high school age and looking at this broader range of ages would be of interest in future studies.

Question 2
There was so much great discussion in the answers to this question. It seemed that mostly everyone believed that healthy eating and good habits should be a main focus of education and that education should start around middle school age. I would ideally like to tie together Kathy and Stephanie’s ideas and have regular nutrition education in the school from kindergarten on and wait until an older age to bring up eating disorders. I also enjoyed Amanda’s idea to have the schools survey students eating behaviors. Yes I know this may be difficult, especially with so many students at times, however having a written process for when a student presents with characteristics of an eating disorder would be highly beneficial within the schools.

Question 3
This question also had a lot and very interesting discussion and answers. It seemed to be commonly agreed that women care more about their body image and that the culture we live in often pushes females into feeling they need to live up to an unrealistic body type. Amanda and Michela, you brought up the idea of screening or the lack of doing so in some areas of health professions. This is a sad truth, but hopefully other areas can pick up the slack and this is not done everywhere. As far as being a health professional in the area of nutrition, being encouraging and providing positive and correct information was commonly mentioned and a great step. I would like to end this summary with something Kathy wrote in this question I thought was perfect for this “HEALTHY is beautiful.”