Weight Issues

Walking around campus and being in the general cultural soup here (ugh), I can't help but notice the contradictory messages on eating and body image that folks are bombarded with around here. Americans (sorry for the gross generalization here) seem to have a completely unhealthy relation to food. There is constant talk about the "obesity problem" (which I completely agree with) juxtaposed with messages like "a thin body is not a healthy body" put out by the Eating Disorders program at the university I go to. I know what they're getting at, and you could just dismiss this as a case of bad advertising, but I think all these mixed messages are bound to create the very same unhealthy relationship to food that they're critiquing. For example, a "sign" that you have an eating disorder from the Eating Disorders website:

"Having rigid rules about food. For example, people may create rules about:
-foods that are allowed versus foods that are forbidden
-the time of day that it is permissible to eat
-the amount of food that they are 'allowed' to eat"

Probably the set of rules that a doctor would suggest to you if you are obese. The doctor says weigh yourself, the eating disorder people say accept your body the way it is. Obviously I *get* what each side is saying and don't think they are mutually exclusive, but all the back and forth seems like a symptom and maybe even a cause of the problem.

Gonna go eat some chocolate cake.