Risk Factors for Anorexia

“Twenty-five percent of the American population are overweight( they exceed their upper weight limit by at least 15 percent), and studies show that 80-90 percent of teenage girls have made one or more efforts to reduce.” That was just one example which Regina Casper used to make her argument on anorexia and bulimia in the world today.

As of 1999, is still very concerned with eating disorders. She wrote a piece in The Stanford Daily about her concerns. She has also written various articles about different things dealing with women and their health Regina Casper first experienced anorexia nervosa while she was in medical school. She was playing the violin in an orchestra at the Department of Medicine to treat chronically ill patients with anorexia nervosa. She says that as the patients came down the staircase they looked ghostlike. Everyone had one thought “how bizarre.” Regina Casper uses many examples to prove her point on anorexia and eating disorders. She goes as far as using examples about fasting to rats eating “cafeteria” food. In this piece Casper uses many different examples and different areas of these disorders to make her point in informing us about these illnesses. Her thesis is very straight forward, it is her title of the piece. She used that to the best of her advantage, being that the first thing the reader sees is what the whole piece is about and it makes them interested and eager to read more. In this piece, she gets lost in her own words sometimes, but she always finds a way to make it back out with an amazing example to get back on track. In the first few paragraphs Regina Casper explains that there are three different types of eating disorders. She goes into detail about each one and all the symptoms for each. She uses

statistics about females and males to help prove her point. On statistic was that ninety-five percent of people with anorexia nervosa are female while only fiver percent are male. She states that in a study on schoolchildren and teenagers, boys or males rarely want to lose weight.

The first reason that Regina states is the conditions germane to our society and culture that tempt people to eat more than they need. During this reason she is very scattered with her examples. None of them really compliment each other. She uses many different examples for this reason. The first example used is that rats maintain their weight while eating Purina chow but when they eat “cafeteria” food they become obese. Then she compares fast-food chains in Japan changing eating habits to when earnings would barely feed a family such a long time ago. Casper also goes into a discussion about sugar and how in Europe Princess Maria would have one morsel of sugar added to her servants tea as a special treat. She says that she thinks that we should be reminded about famine due to crop failure. As recently as 1919, Russia suffered severe famine and received $60,000,000 in food aid from the United States. I feel that the reason Casper uses this example is to remind us that not everyone who does not eat does not necessarily have eating disorders. Regina states that “the abundance of food in contemporary society turns a genetic disposition toward excess body weight into a risk factor for bulimia nervosa.” People in today’s society have a harder time in controlling their temptations for “good” food, which in turn makes them gain weight. However, whenever someone has anorexia nervosa it is less of a problem.

The second reason which Regina states is that the gradual dissolution of the family as the social unit where meals are shared at expected times. She states that when children do not have a

regular meal then they find their own ways of feeding themselves. She goes into a story about a

girl who’s parents divorced and her mom quit cooking meals, she developed bulimia. It wasn’t until she met her boyfriend who’s family actually did have family meals did she eat in other peoples company.

The third reason that Regina gives is the rather obvious hazard of the extreme standards for feminine beauty conspicuously displayed by fashion models. A century ago women were looked to be pink and plump, as opposed to today when pale, slim, and lean looks are in. She states that anorexia nervosa is documented as far back as the twelfth century. She then goes onto explain what the meaning of bulimia is and when it was first documented. Casper starts to talk about different methods of anorexia which girls tend to do, like omitting meals or just not eating period. The omitting of meals increases hunger and the chance for overeating. She found that girls as young as the age twelve had thought about dieting. Regina talks about the different signs of anorexia, like a certain amount of weight loss. People with anorexia do not lose their appetites they