The Role Of The Media

Physiology and Psychology Of Dieting

Acquiring an increased knowledge about food and it effect on our body is an important step in developing eating behaviours that maintain a high health status.

Unfortunately, when it comes to actually making choices about what to eat and when, knowledge is only one part of the influence on us and usually a very minor part at that. Far more important is cultural and socialogical environment we live in and the resultant pressures to conform to norms established and forcefully maintained by that culture through media images, advertising and marketing.

To put it brutally we live in a society and time where "thin" is valued and seen as attractive and desirable, while "fat" is perceived as the opposite. Developing from this is an inherent prejudice against over weight people leading to discrimination in all aspects of daily life.

Food inevitable dominates our live; we need to eat in order to survive. However the pressures to get thin are enormous and have led to the use and abuse of food as a controllable factor in an otherwise uncontrollable life.

Individuals eat (or dont eat) as a response to a whole range of life events, and to deal with the subsequent emotions and feelings. If the eating behaviour results in over eating and therefore a gain in weight, then the eating behaviour comes to be seen as the cause, rather than the symptom, of psychological distress. This is often translated into "if only I could get my eating under control and get thin then I would be happy and everything would be all right".

There are plenty of seemingly glamorous role models provided for us in the media in the form of ultra-slim, usually tall models, who are used to advertise designer clothes and an enormous range of other products. The clothes are specifically designed to look good on their particular frame, so it is hardly surprising that when we go to our high streets stores to try on copy (or even the real thing), they some how never look anywhere near as good. But of cause, if only we could lose weight to look just like the supermodels, then we would look good and feel good too. All we need is to lose a stone or two, particularly from our stomachs and thighs.

Whilst it is unarguably true that most of the pressure to confirm to an ideal body image is aimed at females, men also experience role models imagery in the media. However, most male role models tend to be athletes or film screen heroes. Whilst it may be just as unrealistic for most males to get to look like a top athlete as it is for females to try to look like a super model, at least the attempt to get there will encourage a healthy, active lifestyle.

Ask any Personal Trainer/ Exercise teacher what is the most common question they get asked and the answer will be " How can I make my bottom/tummy/thighs/hips smaller?" In other words, it is about the desire to change the body shape and look different.