"Is media dictatorship causing nutrition problems? "

Résumé du document

The understanding of media dictatorship is fundamental for identifying all phenomena that cause nutritional problems. Recent studies have shown that the media is not innocent in the causes of nutrition problems, an issue which has been ignored in the past few years. Indeed, one traditional way of explaining nutrition problems has been in emphasizing the influence of some unknown health mechanisms.

Extraits

[...] Of course, the media does not inevitably lead to such nutrition problems, but we must not underestimate its effects. Indeed, media is present everywhere and possesses a tremendous effect. We all see it, but we are not all capable of distinguishing reality from fantasy, harmless from dangerous. Young girls are naive and easily swayed. Perhaps the media could change the current trends, and have positive influences of people's nutritional behavior. A good attitude, which some brands start to use, might be to present many kinds of different bodies, and not only skeleton-type models. [...]

[...] They might be dragged by the “dictatorship of thinness”, spread by the media. He thinks that young girls are under the influence of a media phenomenon, which would explain their attitude to extremity. In this point of view, anorexia might be analyzed as a “cultural illness”. Indeed, in poor countries, being a little fat shows that you have money Approach and results To explain why anorexia and bulimia seems nowadays useless as the public is aware of the issue. Given that those “diseases” can lead to death, studying them and trying to find all their causes is an important stake. [...]

[...] Children must learn that we all have different bodies and that we can be beautiful in many different ways. [...]

[...] In those conditions, the media obviously has influences on food consumption. They transmit prejudices about food, claiming that an apple pie will make us feel nostalgia toward our youth, or arguing that every thin woman has this or that kind of cereal brand for breakfast. Even more dangerous, some fast food will convince people that their meals are healthy. They also can affect people pretending that they will be excluded if they don't consume a certain type of food that trendy people eat. [...]

[...] Silja Vock and her colleagues have taken pictures of fifty-six persons suffering from nutrition problems, and of two hundred and nine persons not suffering from it. Then, they asked to participants to adjust the image of a body on a computer, until they recognize themselves in it. While all the participants had about the same idea of the ideal body, those suffering from bulimia and anorexia were all overestimating their own size. On the contrary, all others considered themselves as thinner. [...]