Eating disorders associated with the canon of beauty

Throughout the history of the Western world there have been different changes to the value attributed to food and, with it, to body dimensions. Closely linked to this, we find the variations in the concept of beauty that have been produced in different times. Thus, for example, in developed cities, where food is not a limited good, thinness is considered the ideal aesthetic, while on the contrary in places where food is scarce, body roundness is the most desirable aesthetically.

Do not forget that beauty is a subjective aesthetic value proper to the human being, and it does not have universality, since it is influenced by various cultural and economic factors... what for one society may be beautiful, at the same time it may not be for another.

That is why social phenomena affect both the way we perceive beauty and the way we value ourselves. In certain contexts, this it can lead to eating disorders.

• You may be interested: "The 10 most common eating disorders"

Beauty canons and their influence on eating disorders

Symmetry, like human health, has been considered an indicator of beauty, along with it other elements such as big eyes, long legs and youth. Today we have studies that show that these traits are good indicators of attraction.

In addition, the symmetry of the potential partner is a sign of internal health, and evolution would have been selecting the most symmetrical in order to rule out diseases or malformations that generate disadvantages in the offspring and thus achieve the future of the species.

It is difficult to achieve a definition of beauty due to this subjective nature, but we can talk about canon of beauty by referring to the set of characteristics that an object or person for the society he inhabits to consider his attractiveness.

This concept varies according to the times and from one culture to another. During much of prehistory there was a canon of beauty that corresponded to a woman with a large belly, voluptuous breasts and wide hips since the main objective was the survival and reproduction of the species. This concept evolved until it reached today, a stage in which extreme thinness fills the catwalks.

This type of social stereotypes associated with body beauty are causing a potentiating effect of different eating disorders. The main ones are the following.

1. Anorexia nervosa

It is the most important eating disorder due to the severity that some cases can reach. The literal translation of anorexia nervosa is "nervous loss of appetite" and it is a disorder of food intake deficit. The subject suffering from this disorder has a relentless need for weight loss caused by a phobic fear of obesity, so they follow a very strict diet and continue to starve and in many cases to death.

Symptoms include severe restriction of food and consequent malnutrition, distortion of body image, food avoidance behavior, and different physical repercussions such as menstrual irregularity and later amenorrhea or impotence in the case of men.

• You may be interested: "Major eating disorders: anorexia and bulimia"

2. Bulimia nervosa

Bulimia nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by bingeing and purging. Like anorexia, the person is obsessed with her "ideal weight" (distorted as the vision of her body image) and has a fear of obesity, looking above all for her thinness.

The person begins to feel an urgent need to eat food at all costs and without self-control. After these episodes of overeating or commonly called "binges" the subject is invaded by feelings negative guilt that attempts to correct through induced vomiting, the use of purgatives and laxatives or the consumption of amphetamines.

This circular behavior (need to eat - feeling of guilt - elimination of these feelings) occurs over and over again, constantly perpetuating the bulimic picture. The influence of the media and advertising, professional demands in some cases and the need for social integration itself, may be factors that predispose the person to suffer this type of disorder.

The most affected ages are those that include adolescence, where the self-esteem It has its greatest instability and social and reference group acceptance is the number one priority, but anyone can be vulnerable.

Nobody is perfect, but we are perfect imperfections. Know yourself, love yourself and improve yourself day by dayin all aspects they should be the fundamental pillars for personal development and achieve psychological well-being that accompanies bodily well-being.