Eating disorders are running rampant and the industry is under fire.  If you’re in the entertainment or modeling industry, or aspire to be, you may believe that waging a war with food (your desire to eat vs. your need to stay thin) is just part of that game. People who have, either in the past or presently, been affected by the condition of anorexia or bulimia probably surround you. Perhaps you’re one of them, or you’ve felt yourself teetering on the brink. Perhaps you’re an agent who has struggled with the specter of eating disorders in your clients – because you know, as well as they do, that they have to remain thin to get the jobs that keep both you and they in the game. The attitude still exists that you can never be too rich or too thin – and if you’ve managed to push the extremes of richness and thinness, you’re probably envied far and wide.  But there is a very dark side to this story, one that needs to be told to save the next generation of aspiring models and actresses from this dangerous trap.

You may see people thinner than yourself enjoying professional success. Certainly, in the entertainment world, pressure to be thin is tremendous; an otherwise gorgeous, slender woman can walk into an audition and be told she’s too fat and that is where the trouble begins.

Damned if You’re Skinny, Damned If You’re Not

Skinny celebrities and models have been demonized for inspiring what has become an epidemic of eating disorders. On the other hand, we all know what happens when a previously slender actor or actress is caught in a paparazzi’s lens carrying a few extra pounds, or (Heaven forbid!) a little cellulite. Extreme tabloid humiliation (can you say Kirstie Alley) from legions of tabloid-watchers having an evil chuckle at the stars having fallen so very far is a common occurrence.

Obesity in America is an important issue, too, and it’s impossible to look at any media source anymore without being drenched in universal cultural disapproval of overweight people and obesity. But this intense disapproval is creating a situation where more and more individuals hate their bodies and will do almost anything to change them. And the entertainment industry, where thinness is more highly valued than in the outside world – and where eating disorders are epidemic – is taking major blame for this problem.

The media blames the fashion industry’s use of super-skinny models for worsening the eating disorder epidemic that has hit a fever pitch in 2006, when South American models Ana Carolina Reston and Luisel Ramos both fell victim. When Ana passed away at 21 from kidney failure and infection due to anorexia and bulimia, she was five feet seven inches tall and weighed 88 pounds; when 22-year-old Luisel died from heart failure after coming off of the runway during a fashion show, she weighed 98 pounds and stood five feet, nine inches tall.  This did not need to happen, if these girls had access to the information we provide, they could still be alive, healthy, and successful supermodels.

Some of the fashion industry’s responses have involved banning super-skinny models from runway shows (girls with body mass index below 18; Ana Carolina Reston and Luisel Ramos’ BMIs were between 13 and 14, well below the starvation threshold of 16); not allowing models under the age of 18 to walk the runway; and yearly physicals, weigh-ins, and dietary guidance for models. Critics claim that until designers change their designs, skinny models will continue to be needed to showcase those designs.

And in terms of reducing so-called “thinspiration” for prospective anorexics and bulimics, pushing models to attain a size two or four instead of a size zero is highly unlikely to make a difference – particularly in light of the fact that most magazines digitally alter images of celebrities and models to make them appear even thinner and more beautiful than they actually are, so, until these factors change the public will still be subjected to unrealistic standards of beauty.

If It Can Happen to Them It Can Happen To You

A long list of celebrities, athletes, and models have struggled with eating disorders, and in too many cases, the disorders have won: Karen Carpenter, Margaux Hemingway, gymnast Christy Henrich, ballerina Heidi Guenther, poet Anne Sexton. And that’s not to mention all those less famous individuals who lost the battle! It is estimated that a third of anorexics and bulimics take seven to ten years to get well, and that 25 percent of that 1/3 will end up dying. Two to five percent of people with eating disorders end up committing suicide. And for many of those who don’t die, recovery is a process that never quite ends; relapse is always a significant risk and their thoughts continue to be consumed by their troubled relationship with food and weight.  But that does not need to happen, we have the answers and the time has come to do something dramatic and realistic to change this trend.

While the entertainment media doesn’t hold complete responsibility for the rise in eating-disordered behavior, it definitely could set a better example – showing the world that it is possible to get and stay thin without going through the horror of eating disorders.

We are out to prove that you can get and stay thin with foods and supplements that actually promote your optimal health, energy, endurance, and well-being.

Facts About Eating Disorders

Let me make one point perfectly clear: eating disorders are not only about weight or about food. Experts know well that disordered eating springs from a combination of psychological, physiological, genetic, and environmental factors. If you are concerned that you or someone you care about may have an eating disorder, or may be moving in that direction, it is important that the person consider qualified professional help to address all the facets of the disorder. No single diet or supplement plan is going to change distorted body image, perfectionism, low self-esteem, genetics, or any of the other factors that are conducive to the development of these eating disorders.

According to Dr. Cynthia Bulik, an ED specialist at UNC Chapel Hill, these disorders can be compared to a gun: genes create the gun, and environment pulls the trigger. Although we can – and definitely should – give a person susceptible to EDs a diet that helps balance moods, keep body fat low, and improve every parameter of physical health, most who’ve gone into that psychological state will require counseling and other kinds of support as well.  That is why we want to reach out to and affect the lives of those who may be susceptible to these circumstances, before they give over to the worst-case scenarios.

According to figures from the National Institutes of Mental Health and the Renfrew Center, a premier eating disorders treatment center:

• Five to ten percent of girls and women suffer from eating disorders, with the rates in college women hovering around 10 percent. Four and a half percent of female college freshmen report having bulimic behavior.
• One million boys and men suffer from eating disorders in the U.S.
• As many as 15 percent of young women are “borderline” – they have unhealthy attitudes and behaviors around food.
• One in three dieters develop compulsive dieting attitudes and behaviors, setting the stage for EDs. Forty to 60 percent of high school girls diet; 13 percent of high school girls purge; and 30 to 40 percent of high school girls worry about their weight. Even five-year-olds are concerned about dieting and getting fat.
• Most experts believe that incidence is actually higher, and that many cases go unrecognized or unreported.

Other ED facts:

• All eating disorders are associated with increased risk of depression and anxiety disorders – and with suicidal tendencies.
• Women who have been treated for eating disorders have much higher risk of problems with pregnancy, including giving birth to a low-birth-weight infant, premature birth, miscarriage, complicated delivery, and requiring a C-section.
• Smoking is common in young women with EDs; it is believed that smoking helps to prevent weight gain.

Taking Command, Making a Change, and Setting a New Standard

People with eating disorders do not tend to consume healthful foods. Anorectics develop strange regimens where fat is all but eliminated and sugary foods with virtually no nutritional value are allowed. In the most extreme stages of anorexia nervosa, the person may restrict him or herself only to specific, sometimes natural foods (both of the models described above had been subsisting on bizarre diets for weeks, even months, before dying – one, on nothing but apples and tomatoes; and the other, on lettuce leaves and diet soda). Bulimics tend to binge on high-carbohydrate, high-sugar foods between periods of deprivation. Treatment programs aim to put eating-disordered people on the path of a “normal” diet, but I believe that this so-called “normal” diet can stand some adjusting and improving.

So…let’s talk about you for a moment.

When you’re part of “the industry,” or long to be, you’ve just got to do whatever it takes to get skinny and stay that way…right?

Are you one of the roughly 11 million people who suffer from an eating disorder? Are you one of the 24 million whose dietary habits and obsessiveness over your body’s dimensions have set you on the slippery slope that leads to anorexia and bulimia? Or are you one of the many who longs to attain that size one or zero that can put your picture on the pages of fashion magazines…and ends up steeped in unhappy self-loathing and hatred of your own body?

Or are you someone who is in a position to help those most at risk?

Be honest. You know whether you or someone close to you has a dangerous attitude towards food. You know whether the longing to be thin, skinny, even skeletal is pathological. You know that starving yourself, binge eating, and making yourself throw up are all dangerous habits. But you might think these risks are worth attaining your dreams of being a TV or movie actress, dancer, musician, or fashion model. If you’re an agent, you may think that there’s not much you can do to protect your clients against EDs, because that’s just the way the business goes.

It is time to wake up and get real; avoiding eating disorders does not require you to drop your aspirations toward thinness. There is a solution. In my extensive research of the human physiology, and in creating an optimal weight-loss lifestyle, I believe I’ve found an amazing answer to these problems. 

Imagine being as thin as you like yet being healthier than most Americans??

How? The answer lies in a unique diet and supplement program I’ve designed. I call it Superfoods for Supermodels. This plan has already garnered the interest of modeling agencies around the U.S. These agencies are working with me to develop a “contract” and certificate showing that each model has read the materials on the dangers of eating disorders and knows how to recognize the symptoms, that they understand the need to meet basic nutritional needs of the body, and that they have educated themselves about the Superfoods for Supermodels plan.  They need to acknowledge that they understand how this plan helps them to pack adequate nutritional value into a low-calorie food and supplement plan that fulfills their desire to remain “in the game” and guarantees them they will not suffer the indignity of a binge and purge lifestyle.

The Superfoods for Supermodels plan is designed specifically to satiate and satisfy, allowing you to lose weight or remain thin while getting all the nutrition you require, have abundant energy, mental clarity and confidence that comes from treating yourself right.

This plan contains high concentrations of nutrients from whole organic foods that have been scientifically demonstrated to have health-enriching properties. It supplies recipes for meals that are satisfying but low in calories, refined carbohydrates, and fat. It employs delicious shakes and smoothies that are absolutely packed with vitamins, minerals, antioxidant phytochemicals, essential fatty acids, and essential amino acids, not from some chemical vitamin factory, but from natural whole foods.