Exploring disordered eating as a researcher isn't always easy, especially when it's necessary to get a large data set. But it's possible to get access to new kinds of information when you're willing to work with an unlikely partner.
At the 2008 International Conference on Eating Disorders, I sat down with Cynthia Bulik, Ph.D., head of the eating disorders program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She had been the lead researcher on a novel and ambitious project -- partnering with Self, a mainstream women's magazine, to perform her research.What's so amazing about it? Well, it would be easy to classify Self as one of those magazines that promotes the necessity of a perfect female body at any cost -- the kind of magazine that many with eating disorders read regularly. That's the population that Dr. Bulik and colleagues wanted to reach, a broader audience than most research projects can tap. The magazine published a survey on their website and received 4,000 responses from women ages 25 to 45. So there was plenty of data to crunch. How would the two parties respond to what they learned?
Self Magazine's Feature
Self didn't partner with Dr. Bulik's team just for the fun of it. They got a feature article -- "The Disorder Next Door" -- out of the deal. I snagged a copy of the May 2008 issue to see how the magazine treated the topic.
The article apparently didn't warrant a headline on the cover, which instead featured many familiar and tiring blurbs ("Slim and Tone in Just 30 Minutes," "304 Tips to Get Summer Sexy," and so on).
But in addition to the article's bouncy magazine-speak, I found a compelling dollop of research and sobering wisdom, which Self decided how to bring to their readers. Based on the data, Self lumped responders into a number of catchy-named categories for (dare I say it?) bite-size reader consumption. Here were their groups:
- Calorie prisoners: Condemn calories (and the foods that have a lot of them)
- Secret eaters: Binge in order not to be found out
- Career dieters: Gain comforting structure through diet plans
- Purgers: Driven to deal with food and bloating by vomiting, laxatives, or diuretics
- Food addicts: Use food to respond to any situation, good or bad -- a constant companion
- Extreme exercisers: Live on exercise because it's their means of weight loss; nothing gets in the way of a workout
The divisions themselves aren't entirely fair, because many people have behaviors that fit more than one category. It's a testament to how a magazine has to package data so that we'll read it. Said another way, I'm sure Self's readership is larger than that of the International Journal of Eating Disorders.
But there were some solid notions in the article as well. Embedded in the language was the assumption that, as I've suggested previously, disordered eating encompasses more behaviors than just eating disorders. Eating disorders are just extreme examples of eating patterns that can disrupt lives. I was pleased to see this differentiation, which can help many to understand that there are things they can do about their food issues even without having formal diagnoses. Of those surveyed, 10% met criteria for eating disorders like anorexia, bulimia, and binge-eating disorder while an additional 65% experienced disordered eating.
Self also reported the reality that extreme measures of weight control backfire, often resulting in eventual weight gain. Here's an effective sidebar comment: "16% of the women surveyed have dieted on fewer than 1,000 calories a day; that's what a 3-year-old needs. In adults, this may cause a binge."
Side Benefit: Educating the Staff at Self Magazine
In our brief discussion, Dr. Bulik described the trade-off of working with the magazine. She didn't have any say in how the article for Self would be written, which is certainly not the case in the usual research process. I'm sure that she would have steered clear of some of the article's characterizations. But she also had the chance to speak with the magazine's staff about how those vulnerable to eating disorders interpret language and ideas about food and eating. In other words, Self heard about how the media can have a negative impact on disordered eating. The article seems to have a tiny voice compared to the rest of the magazine's message, but one has to start somewhere.
If only concerned advocates could bend the ear of the decision makers at other women's magazines as well.
What About the Healthy Women?
You might be thinking, "So 75% of women have unhealthy relationships with food. Who are the other 25%?" That's exactly what Dr. Bulik wonders, and her next step is to ask this subgroup how they go about their lives. I'll be interested to see how those with disordered eating view the members of this group. Will there be envy? Admiration? Hope? Time will tell. Regardless, the existence of this astonishingly small minority tells us that it's possible to live without food ruling our lives, a goal to which we all can aspire.
Source:
Karras T. The disorder next door. Self May 2008: 248-253.
