Anorexia in Brazil Drawing Attention
You’d think that the number one most beauty-focused country would be us here in the US, who seems to be body-obsessed, and has more and more plastic surgery every year it seems to keep up this beauty ideal. But, many are surprised to learn that Brazil has placed a very high priority on physical beauty, to a point of danger for it’s young women, and more and more women are dying and succumbing to the temptations of starving themselves.
Anorexia drew national attention when a successful Brazilian model died in her early twenties from the disease, and she only weighed about 88 pounds when she died, of infection related directly to malnourishment caused by this body ravaging disease. Now, three other deaths have followed of young women emaciated by anorexia or a combination of anorexia and bulimia (binging and purging), and officials are starting to realize that they may need to put some restrictions on the fashion industry which influences so many trends, and tends to put a high price on pencil thin models whom young girls strive to look like.
Most of the women stricken with the disease where you are literally terrified of gaining weight, and skip meals and eat very little when you do eat, therefore becoming too thin, and often too weak to even go about daily life in its most severe cases. Bulimia is also common, where young women, in order to control the amount of weight they gain or perceivably lose the weight they may put on by eating certain foods, binge (eat a lot), then purge either through the use of laxatives or through vomiting.
They also may try herbal weight loss pills and even pharmaceutical diet pills, in a serial fashion in order to control what they percieve as out of control eating behavior, which they themselves cannot seem to help.
Bulimia is often characterized by a normal weight, but someone who eats a lot more than they should for weighing as much as they do. Many times this disease can have devastating effects on the esophagus, which gets worn away from stomach acids, the teeth may rot early, and there may not be enough bile in their digestive system since they are constantly throwing it up. Also, bulimics tend to dress in oversized clothes and tend to have “closeted” eating habits.
