The average teenager comes home after school. On the kitchen table, there is a copy of Marie Claire magazine and a Snicker bar. The teenager goes over to claim the bar. Between the girl and the fatty goodness is the magazine. The teenager takes one glimpse at the magazine.
On the cover of the magazine is a stick-skinny model. Suddenly looks at her own body, steps away from the Snicker’s bar. And decides to change her diet.
In the recent century, that has become a reality for most teenagers. Teenagers feel the need to look similar to celebrities they see on television because they are good looking. Many teenagers will starve themselves or put themselves through extreme workout sessions, which can hurt more than help.
“Diets and exercise can help a person lose weight, however, if a person starts starving themselves, then not only is the body using up the stored fat, but it is also eating away at your muscles, which can completely ruin the organism,” said Registered Nurse Jane Carstens of Clove Lakes Rehabilitation and Nursing Center.
With almost every other commercial is trying to sell the average person weight loss pills or a weight loss plan on television, and the notion of looking perfect or even just better has become a permanent obsession of America’s subconscious. And not only that but TV doctors, such as Dr. Mehmet Oz, constantly stress about obesity leading to diseases and premature death.
“The media is making people think that they should be a certain way, and it’s not healthy,” said sophomore Matthew Taylor.
Author and journalist Paul Campos disagrees. As stated in his book The Obesity Myth, obesity is not dangerous to one’s health, and the assumption that being fat causes deadly diseases is both simplistic and one sided. Too often people believe what they hear; thus they try to stay or become what they think is skinny.
What we all need to understand is that obese people, like everyone else develop diseases because of personal health issues, and not because of their slightly expanded waistline.
“It is better to be a little overweight, that especially applies to young people, because what happens to most people is when they get sick, they lose a lot of weight, and if the person is underweight to begin with, then that can be a serious issue,” said Carstens.
What most people fail to realize is that it is impossible to look or have a body like a celebrity because everyone is built differently!
“Most young people want to live up to their idea of beauty, but they don’t realize that it doesn’t exist in that sense, beauty isn’t on the outside,” said student from Croatia Josipa Unic.
Most gorgeous celebrities only look the way they do because they get surgeries, or suffer from anorexia, or take laxatives, or are paying expensive trainers to torture them until they get a perfect body.
“People should not pay attention to the way they look, but they should focus more on their personalities,” said Taylor.
Just ask yourself: “Will that ‘perfect body’ really make me happy or make me miserable until I achieve it?”
