Weight Mania

She begins to take off her shoes. She looks at her wrists and takes her watch off to make sure it doesn’t add a gram or two. Her whole body shivers as she looks at her slim figure. She slowly lifts one foot and then the other. With her eyes closed, she si­lently prays.

Rania Mroue, a 38-year-old mother of three, has an anx­iety attack every time she stands on the scale to weigh herself. “I was never like this when I was younger, it’s be­come a sickness I live with now,” Mroue confessed.

Calculations show that, for her height, Mroue has a less-than-average weight. Unfor­tunately, it’s the paranoia of gaining a few kilos that keeps her uneasy. “Media and soci­ety gave us a certain image of how we should look like and we’re all tormented by that image,” Mroue explained.

A 2003 study conducted in a rural community in Lebanon revealed that 30.2 percent of women are obese. Anoth­er cross-sectional survey of 2,104 children (3 to 19-year-old) and adults showed that obesity and obesity risk levels are higher, overall, among boys than girls (22.5 versus 16.1 percent risk and 7.5 versus 3.2 percent obesi­ty, respectively).

This finding was associated with lack of exercise among children.

“I can’t walk without think­ing that people are looking at me and laughing,” Tamara Tahtah, a 22-year-old stu­dent, said. Tahtah has been suffering from obesity since she was 8 years old. She has tried all kinds of diets but nothing seemed to work. “What hurts me the most is that it wouldn’t have mat­tered this much to society if I was a man,” she sadly ex­plained.

A cross-sectional study of adolescents in private Leba­nese schools suggested that overweight and obesity prev­alence among girls decreases with age (P < 10).

“You can never be too thin,” a Pretzel Crisps advertise­ment reads.

Youngsters are exposed to slogans glorifying thinness every day. An overwhelm­ing number of studies reveal that such ads push young men and women toward an­orexia and bulimia. “When I ask my patients why they want to be thinner, most of them reply; ‘because I want to look like a model,’” nutri­tionist Joyce Daher said.

Daher explained that peo­ple come to her for the wrong reasons. Very few, indeed, seek more balanced diets for health reasons. “They only care about how they look,” she said.

Daher explained the impor­tance of proper nutrient in­take for a longer and health­ier life. “What my patients don’t understand is the dan­ger they put their bodies through with all those crazy diets,” Daher said. “There is only one diet, and that is eat­ing small portions of every­thing.”

“I have put my body through a lot,” Khouloud Shammas, a 33-year-old mother of three, admitted. Shammas has suf­fered from bulimia and an­orexia for the last 10 years. Her house is filled with mag­azines and pictures of mod­els. “I was never overweight but I became obsessed with my weight after having my first child,” she explained.

Shammas believes that the pressure around her and the comparison she makes with television figures pushed her to seek extreme thinness.

“The moment I woke up in the hospital with my hus­band and children around me looking worried, I woke up to reality,” she said. “I final­ly stopped pressuring myself and just stayed healthy, I’m happier than ever now.”

Radwan Kaddouh is a 15-year-old boy who suffers from major obesity. Kad­douh’s parents are no longer concerned about how their child looks.

They worry about their son’s life, which is now in danger. Kaddouh is no longer able to walk, sleep or go to school due to his obesity. His parents be­lieve that their son’s state re­lates to fast food and lack of exercise. Living in fear, they also blame themselves for not being attentive enough before the problem escalated.

A 2003 study in rural Leba­non demonstrated that high­er socioeconomic status is correlated with higher adop­tion of unhealthy nutrition­al habits (fast food, energy-dense snacks, sweets, etc.) and lower consumption of traditional healthy Mediter­ranean food (cereals, vegeta­bles and fruits). These find­ings are consistent with the general tendency in devel­oping countries, in contrast with first-world nations.

“Some people who have an unhealthy obsession with their weight, may never be satisfied no matter how low the scale seems to register,” psychologist Rouaa Arbid ex­plained. Arbid believes that such people need to undergo a form of therapy in order to understand the positive as­pects of having a healthy in­stead of a “bikini body.”

“If men and women begin to understand this theory from a young age, this obses­sion will rarely occur,” Ar­bid said. She thinks that par­ents should always be careful about the lifestyle of their children. “Parents these days reward their children with fast food instead of a book to read,” she explained.

Mroue still struggles with facing the scale. It’s been five years but she still expe­riences anxiety attacks be­fore weighing herself. “It’s difficult because I’m sup­posed to be a role model to my children. How can I be a role model when I fear a two-dig­it number on a scale?” Mroue asked.

By Reem Swaidan
LAU Tribune staff