Diet aid use and eating disorders among college students

Health and healthy living require a balance of many ideas and behaviors, that need to be taken into consideration in order to realize the totality of the situation. One of the more pressing issues in today's world deals with the ability of the younger generations to practice good and healthy eating habits. While this may appear easy at first glance, the many circumstances that may contribute to such a problem can create a situation where more research is required.

The use of diet aids within college populations is a serious issue within the health care arena. The purpose of this essay is to explore the many intricate details that correlate with the use of diet aids amongst college students and how this practice may become harmful and provide unintended circumstances. This essay will first define key terms and gather the necessary literature to help guide the discussion. Next, this essay will illuminate how education about this topic is eventually the best approach to combating the many facets of this argument.

Background Information

The stresses that accompany the everyday college student are wide and varying. This includes physical, mental and emotional stressors that play a role in the collective health of that student. Eating disorders become a way to cope with this stress many times and the use of diet aids and diet pills often go hand in hand with such disorder. here are many misconceptions about eating disorders. Eating disorders may develop as a way to gain control over and cope with emotional problems, stress, self-hate, shame and/or trauma. For some young adults the stress of heading off to college and adapting to a new and competitive environment can lead to an eating disorder - if left untreated, can lead to complex medical and psychiatric symptoms.

Contributing Factors

The social pressures that are present in college aid people are very hard to resist. Students, trying to adjust to a new and powerful social situation are often left to their own defenses without the proper knowledge about the dangers of falling into such traps. The peer pressure to look thin and healthy, especially on a college campus should not be underestimated as a driving force behind this behavior.

The media uses the accepted cultural values of thinness and fitness for monetary gain. Americans spend billions of dollars trying to achieve an unrealistic ideal. Societal and cultural norms and mass media marketing impact our concepts of what beauty looks like. These external influences are so widely accepted that most of us never stop to challenge them or ask how they came to be.

Warning Signs

It is important for people to be aware of the warning signs that may accompany such abuse. These may include: Frequent changes in weight or severe weight loss, wears baggy, loose fitting clothes, makes many trips to the bathroom, skips meals and isolates oneself. While these signs to don't always point to this problem, there are indeed good indicators of warning signs that there may be a problem.

Part 2: Unit 9 Assignment

Celio's (2006) article discussing the problems with diet pills and other diet aids in college populations reveal many differing aspects about this problem. The purpose of this essay is to build off these ideas and present a supplementary argument that can help contribute to the larger issues at hand. This essay will examine the role of body image, and how it plays a role in the development of eating disorders which may lead to the abuse of diet drugs and other substances. The idea of body image will be explored to help contextualize the larger discussion revolving around healthy eating and maintaining a balanced diet.

Butkiewicz (2014) suggested that the media plays a large role in how college students may view themselves in the larger context of society. She wrote "according to the National Eating Disorders Association, eating disorders typically begin between the ages of 18 and 21. Media plays a huge role in how we perceive our bodies." The media's expanded role in today's society also suggests that this problem is even worse than reported. Agliata & Dunn (2004) supported this argument with their research when they wrote "mass media are believed to be a persuasive force in shaping physical appearance ideals and have been shown to negatively impact females body image. As observed in so many studies of females, having a desired body size and degree of physical attractiveness other than one's own can lead to body image dissatisfaction, the use of weight control strategies and a heightened potential for eating pathology."

The media's role in this problem is important but does not fully describe the totality of the problem. Body image is much more complex than most people realize. There are deep and profound psychological and physiological contributing factors that help develop and individual's body image. The individual college student, is ultimately responsible for his or her own actions and the transition to adulthood requires such self-regulating behaviors.

Thompson (2001) suggested that promoting the positive eating habits within a college environment may be necessary to combat all the negative influences these young students are bombarded with on a constant and intense basis. He wrote "Findings collectively suggest that internalization is a causal risk factor for body-image and eating disturbances, and that it appears to operate in conjunction with other established risk factors for these outcomes, including dieting and negative affect."

Conclusions

It is very important to realize that there are many differing factors that contribute to the problems of body image and how that subjective interpretation may be dangerous for those unknowing how to self correct their behavior. College is a time for exploration and education into many different realms of learning. This includes the social education that also plays out concurrently with the academic education that a college student receives. Adapting to the social stresses of the college life requires experimentation and inductive reasoning into these subjects. The way that students adjust to this social change can be monitored through diet and dietary behaviors.

More research is needed to pinpoint some of the finer details of this correlation, but it appears obvious that a causal relationship has been established between eating habits, body image and adjusting to a new social situation. When these ideals are balanced it may reveal more information on this topic which can be used to help understand the topic in a more refined manner.