10 Healthy food trends

What’s the right body image?

Don’t judge a book by its cover, which comes first in our mind when we notice a person, however many are judged differently according to their physical appearances. Solely based on credible researches and real life encounters, usually those who are attractive has likely of being successful in life, therefore it has such a huge impact on social interactions. Hence, in general and body image in particular have lead such an imperative constructs in contemporary and as a reflection of attitudes and communication tools with the societies. 

The irony behind the fact of the tendency to link physical attractiveness with positive personal qualities has become a cultural stereotype globally. Worse than that is that nowadays mass media are all advertising the misconception of perfect bodies this then leading people to believe in ‘what is beautiful is good’  or ‘what is skinny is good’ and social media is subconsciously advertising it at the same time to leading people in accepting that attractiveness means success. 

As a result, body image leads to psychological problem in our society inevitably. Body dysmorphic is characterised by a discrepancy between the perception of a women body that she’s given for and the ideal body she wants to have, leading to a negative subjective evaluation of her body. As a result, body image leads to a psychological problem in our society inevitably.

Why do we still need fat?

We need fat in our body no matter what, especially white adipose tissue (WAT) as it plays a important role to keep our body to be in equilibrium state (homeostatic) to meet the body demands. Even though WAT has such an imperative role, it is however can impact negatively for example during obesity, and WAT undergoes various cellular and structural remodelling processes: 

1. Increases its size or increase its number
2. Recruits inflammatory cells
3. Remodelling of its constructions to allow adequate tissue expansion, oxygenation and mobilisation of nutrient

The prolongment of obesity and inflammation could lead to systemic body dysfunctions, to be characterised by impaired secretion of adipokines (bioactive product), abnormal lipid storage and adipogenesis (fats doubling up), exacerbated fibrosis deposition and insulin resistance.

Risks of underweight?

However, being underweight has more prominent health risks compared to overweight or obese associated health problems and the mortality rate is higher too in fact, underweight is way more dangerous. Most pronounced risk is hospitalisation especially for circulatory or musculoskeletal diseases, higher prevalence of HIV contraction, and malnutrition thereby potentially leading to body mechanism failures and death if a body unable to cope against the shortage of essential nutrients.

Why body image is being concerned a lot?

Who to be blamed for us to be dissatisfied of our own body images, especially being slim is seen to be the new standard of beauty, and this issue is more far more prevalent among women than men. This is because women are expected to have that slender body image therefore this causes distress to most women and even if they are slender enough most of them feel dissatisfied with their body image still. Whereas an overweight person, they are seemed to be looked down upon and constantly determined to be awful hence causing them to have low self confidences due to their size and deemed to be unattractive. Additionally, socio-cultural patterns associate fatness with laziness, and are easily hallmarked as indolent.

Majority of this issue starts with young individuals especially girls at the age of 15-19 years old and this body dissatisfaction issue leads to impaired emotional well-being, low self-esteem, elevated depressive symptoms, low physical activity and eating disorder. Subconsciously, social media also leads has altered a false perception of body image. The prevalence of peers or partners could also altered or influenced the right body image. Body shame is also the biggest fear for most people as this could alter their confidence and self esteem and most importantly could lead to unhappiness.

Hot Issue

Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) has become the real issue nowadays and it is due to their beliefs for what they thought of their bodies to be disgusting or unacceptable and is a mental health disorder. The associated risk of suicide is higher in patients with BDD who has more serious case of BDD, meaning their rate of BDD risk assessment is far more higher. This can range to mild to delusional symptoms such as self-harm.

Eating disorders?

Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a severe psychological illness linked by extreme underweight, an intense fear of gaining weight. A deranged body perception and a strong eagerness of being thin, which may associate to a severe underweight. Their state of hunger and satiety are abnormal, which then altered olfaction in a number of psychiatric disorders, e.g. depression, anxiety, and schizophrenia.

It is more prevalent in girls rather than in boys, and onset is more prevalent for adolescents. Prolonged malnutrition can affect the brain mechanisms to be dysfunctional and reduction in brain size in individuals with AN.

Conclusion

Globally, this body image issue had been looked upon as a very serious worldwide health and mental cases as both underweight or overweight cases have the potential of suicide. Social media are way beyond manageable as they’re not to be the main precursor of the issue however it is still one of the factors. One way to alleviate this matter is that do not believe in what social media says about the perfect body image and if you think you have this issue please don’t hesitate to share this problem to the person who you trust the most and always remember that you're not alone. There are a lot of platforms that able to alleviate this problem to prevent any unwanted poor life decision. Love your body you live in and stop worrying about your appearance as your body is the only vehicle that will take you places. I'll see you guys on my next post!

Love,

Claudia 

Reference list:

Craike, M., Young, J. A., Symons, C. M., Pain, M. D., Harvey, J. T., Eime, R. M., & Payne, W. R. (2016). Trends in body image of adolescent females in metropolitan and non-metropolitan regions: a longitudinal study. BMC Public Health, 16(1), 1-9. doi:10.1186/s12889-016-3815-1

Tomas-Aragones, L., & Marron, S. E. (2016). Body Image and Body Dysmorphic Concerns. Acta Dermato-Venereologica, 96(217), 47-50. doi:10.2340/00015555-2368

POP, C. (2016). Self-Esteem and Body Image Perception in a Sample of University Students. Eurasian Journal Of Educational Research (EJER), (64), 31-44. doi:10.14689/ejer.2016.64.2

Pellegrinelli, V., Carobbio, S., & Vidal-Puig, A. (2016). Adipose tissue plasticity: how fat depots respond differently to pathophysiological cues. Diabetologia, 59(6), 1075-1088. doi:10.1007/s00125-016-3933-4

Rytter, M. )., Babirekere-Iriso, E. )., Michaelsen, K. )., Ritz, C. )., Mortensen, C. )., Friis, H. )., & ... Mupere, E. ). (2017). Risk factors for death in children during inpatient treatment of severe acute malnutrition: A prospective cohort study. American Journal Of Clinical Nutrition, 105(2), 494-502. doi:10.3945/ajcn.116.140822

Fuglset, T. S., Endestad, T., Hilland, E., Bang, L., Tamnes, C. K., Landrø, N. I., & Rø, Ø. (2016). Brain volumes and regional cortical thickness in young females with anorexia nervosa. BMC Psychiatry, 161-8. doi:10.1186/s12888-016-1126-9

Bentz, M., Guldberg, J., Vangkilde, S., Pedersen, T., Plessen, K. J., & Jepsen, J. M. (2017). Heightened Olfactory Sensitivity in Young Females with Recent-Onset Anorexia Nervosa and Recovered Individuals. Plos ONE, 12(1), 1-17. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0169183