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March 7, 2001
(U-WIRE) LEXINGTON, Ky. - Elizabeth Demaret graduated from the University of Richmond with three degrees and a minor -- and she could have done it a semester early. Instead, the honor student who worked three jobs during all of her college years opted to spend her last semester working in Ireland as a legislative aide for the man who would become the country's prime minister.
When she left for Ireland in 1987, the high-achieving standout was a picture of perfection.
But when she returned, her own family was aghast at the sight of her. She had lost 30 pounds overseas, most of it in toilets. She carried 108 pounds on a 5-foot-9-inch frame, eating mustard packets and bowls of shredded carrots for meals.
"Whole carrots would be too much," she said.
Though she remembers Ireland as a "personal high," she also realizes that there she began the destruction that would lead to her personal low: bulimia and anorexia.
For high achievers like Demaret, the psychological strain of perfectionism can result in eating disorders, said Gabriella Pessah, senior staff psychologist at UK's Counseling and Testing Center.
"You've got someone who is constantly struggling to create the perfect image," she said, "but internally they're not feeling good enough."
Not one thing causes eating disorders, Pessah said. A combination of psychological, interpersonal, social and other possible biological or biochemical factors are at the root of anorexia and bulimia.
"For each individual, it is different," she said, "it might be some combination of one or two or three or all of the above."
MIRROR, MIRROR ON THE ... MEDIA?
Actress Alyssa Milano peers from the November cover of Cosmopolitan, her turquoise string-bikini top barely covering two perfect breasts and leaving her nearly concave stomach exposed.
Inside the magazine, a section called "Cosmo Diet" informs readers how to fend off "food-pushers" and how to "reject seconds in a sly way." Have the media lassoed young women with a distorted measuring tape?
Some say yes.
While the media cannot be called the sole cause of eating disorders, it does encourage poor body image, which is one of the social factors that can lead to both bulimia and anorexia, Pessah said.
"The cultural pressures glorify being thin and place really high value on having the 'perfect body,'" she said.
Demaret is quick to say society didn't cause her eating disorder, but she's also the first to point out the negative image it is sending to adolescents. She said she worries about how to protect her daughter from the "thin is beautiful" societal messages.
According to an article in the Nutrition Research Newsletter, past research has shown that eating disorder patients and women showing high body dissatisfaction tend to overestimate their body size after viewing thin models.
Now a healthy weight, Demaret said she will never see her true reflection in the mirror: "I see rolls of fat and dimples. I have to use other mirrors -- my husband and my children ... things that will give me positive feedback."
It is difficult to find positive feedback about body image anywhere, said Jill Kindy, a dietician at Student Health.
"We don't have too many good examples of someone saying I am OK the way I am," Kindy said, "and you are OK the way you are."
But University of Kentucky advertising professor Dennis Altman does not think it is up to the advertising industry to set an example.
"Advertising merely reflects what exists," he said. "Size four supermodels are clothes hangers, not role models."
If American women are upset by the images they should speak up, but they don't, he said. "They just say 'what a pretty dress.'"
However, Stephanie Lucchese, an integrated strategic communications senior, doesn't just see pretty dresses when she looks at models in magazines and on billboards.
During both high school and college, Lucchese has known girls with eating disorders.
But the preoccupation with body image began for many of her friends in middle school.
When Lucchese looks at a Cosmopolitan she would like the cover to be a true reflection of American women: "They are putting false ideals in the way we see ourselves."
REFLECTIONS
Demaret's 4-year-old daughter loves to dance in front of full-length mirrors. But she can't do it at home -- her mother can't stand the sight of her own reflection.
Demaret's husband finally convinced her to buy their daughter a full-length mirror.
But Demaret hasn't hung it up yet.
(U-WIRE) LEXINGTON, Ky. - Elizabeth Demaret graduated from the University of Richmond with three degrees and a minor -- and she could have done it a semester early. Instead, the honor student who worked three jobs during all of her college years opted to spend her last semester working in Ireland as a legislative aide for the man who would become the country's prime minister.
When she left for Ireland in 1987, the high-achieving standout was a picture of perfection.
But when she returned, her own family was aghast at the sight of her. She had lost 30 pounds overseas, most of it in toilets. She carried 108 pounds on a 5-foot-9-inch frame, eating mustard packets and bowls of shredded carrots for meals.
"Whole carrots would be too much," she said.
Though she remembers Ireland as a "personal high," she also realizes that there she began the destruction that would lead to her personal low: bulimia and anorexia.
For high achievers like Demaret, the psychological strain of perfectionism can result in eating disorders, said Gabriella Pessah, senior staff psychologist at UK's Counseling and Testing Center.
"You've got someone who is constantly struggling to create the perfect image," she said, "but internally they're not feeling good enough."
Not one thing causes eating disorders, Pessah said. A combination of psychological, interpersonal, social and other possible biological or biochemical factors are at the root of anorexia and bulimia.
"For each individual, it is different," she said, "it might be some combination of one or two or three or all of the above."
MIRROR, MIRROR ON THE ... MEDIA?
Actress Alyssa Milano peers from the November cover of Cosmopolitan, her turquoise string-bikini top barely covering two perfect breasts and leaving her nearly concave stomach exposed.
Inside the magazine, a section called "Cosmo Diet" informs readers how to fend off "food-pushers" and how to "reject seconds in a sly way." Have the media lassoed young women with a distorted measuring tape?
Some say yes.
While the media cannot be called the sole cause of eating disorders, it does encourage poor body image, which is one of the social factors that can lead to both bulimia and anorexia, Pessah said.
"The cultural pressures glorify being thin and place really high value on having the 'perfect body,'" she said.
Demaret is quick to say society didn't cause her eating disorder, but she's also the first to point out the negative image it is sending to adolescents. She said she worries about how to protect her daughter from the "thin is beautiful" societal messages.
According to an article in the Nutrition Research Newsletter, past research has shown that eating disorder patients and women showing high body dissatisfaction tend to overestimate their body size after viewing thin models.
Now a healthy weight, Demaret said she will never see her true reflection in the mirror: "I see rolls of fat and dimples. I have to use other mirrors -- my husband and my children ... things that will give me positive feedback."
It is difficult to find positive feedback about body image anywhere, said Jill Kindy, a dietician at Student Health.
"We don't have too many good examples of someone saying I am OK the way I am," Kindy said, "and you are OK the way you are."
But University of Kentucky advertising professor Dennis Altman does not think it is up to the advertising industry to set an example.
"Advertising merely reflects what exists," he said. "Size four supermodels are clothes hangers, not role models."
If American women are upset by the images they should speak up, but they don't, he said. "They just say 'what a pretty dress.'"
However, Stephanie Lucchese, an integrated strategic communications senior, doesn't just see pretty dresses when she looks at models in magazines and on billboards.
During both high school and college, Lucchese has known girls with eating disorders.
But the preoccupation with body image began for many of her friends in middle school.
When Lucchese looks at a Cosmopolitan she would like the cover to be a true reflection of American women: "They are putting false ideals in the way we see ourselves."
REFLECTIONS
Demaret's 4-year-old daughter loves to dance in front of full-length mirrors. But she can't do it at home -- her mother can't stand the sight of her own reflection.
Demaret's husband finally convinced her to buy their daughter a full-length mirror.
But Demaret hasn't hung it up yet.
