Trisha Gura: How the Girls in Fiji Lost Their Groove |
| Published: July 31, 2007, 7:31 pm |
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They do it even in remote island villages. In my last blog, several people who posed comments asked if the U.S. was the only country suffering eating disorders. Here's my answer: In Sigatoka, Fiji, eating disorders have emerged from, literally, nothing. According to anthropologist Anne Becker, before 1995, no eating disorders existed on the island, excepting one murky case of anorexia. The Polynesian island meandered along under balmy eating-disorder-clear skies for 3,000 years, as villagers proudly displayed their large brown bodies, built to a size we would label obese. But in the Fiji, the bigger the body, the more the love. Then, in 1995, it all changed. The village chief permitted television. In three short years, the percentage of girls who vomited to control their weight rose from none to 11 percent. Almost a third wanted to diet, vomit, or exercise excessively because they suddenly hated their beautiful bodies. The majority, 83 percent of the girls, blamed their change [ Full article ] |
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