International Day Without Diets: against the obsession with the ideal weight
Today, May 6, and since 1992 the International Day Without Diets is celebrated , initiative that was born in the United Kingdom by the hand of Mary Evans Young. Several were the triggers that led her to be the creator of this day: the viewing of a television program about surgical operations to overweight people, the news of a teenager who decides to commit suicide having suffered ridicule for her weight in her peer group, and having suffered anorexia nervosa herself.
Mary Evans then decides to work on a campaign called "Fat Woman Bites Back", translated into Spanish means "The fat ones return the bite".
Over time, more countries have joined this initiative that puts the spotlight on key points related to the pressure that women receive on body image , denouncing with it the creation of canons of beauty that move away from reality.
- Related article: "The 10 most common eating disorders"
Why is the International Day Without Diets?
Some of the objectives that this campaign aims to pursue are the following:
- Celebrate the natural diversity of the body.
- Promote good self-esteem in all people regardless of how their body is.
- Revalue a positive body image in all bodies.
- Develop healthy eating guidelines that are not based on restrictive diets that favor the appearance of eating disorders.
- Reject, as a society, cultural values that favor hatred towards one's own body.
These central objectives are intended to remember this day are interrelated with other factors that directly or indirectly attack the creation of a positive image towards one's own body, as well as that of other people. Some examples are the invitations to follow the misnamed "miracle diets" , in which in some of them the food restriction is recommended.
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The acceptance of one's own body
The use of dietary supplements that substitute food intakes, the abuse of laxatives and diuretics to achieve a feeling of "emptying" ... The obsession to reach an "ideal weight" without taking into account the natural fluctuations of the same and the own corporal constitution. The custom of performing the "bikini operation" that anticipates on the one hand that to teach the body has to be of a certain form, as well as that you have to make changes on it so that it can be shown without complexes.
These are some of the different guidelines and attempts to commercialize products that highlight the "need" to achieve a weight in which different personal and social expectations are projected, which in many cases are not satisfied with the modification of the body or a part of it.
Therefore, it is necessary to highlight the importance of preventive measures aimed at stop factors that promote body dissatisfaction .
A positive attitude towards one's body
From the family, it is advisable to favor positive attitudes both towards one's own body and that of others, and to promote a healthy lifestyle around food so that it, among others, does not become an extendant agent around which handle personal and interpersonal conflicts.
From the rest of the socializing and community agents: Showing rejection towards gordofóbicas attitudes, not allowing from the school and the working environment discriminations around the physical, promoting a critical attitude toward the cultural mandates that attempt against the corporal diversity and about the related gender mandates With corporality, eliminate the use of images far from reality that exalt the extreme thinness, and in the manufacture of clothing support the diversity of the body with its different shapes, sizes and heights. These are some of the many measures that can favor the creation, development and maintenance of good body self-esteem.
