Daily Dosage: Overweight or anorexic…the lesser of two evils
As if we needed a study to reinforce that we’re all either fat or eating disordered, or both. Unfortunately, one group of researchers decided to remind us of just that – and then determine which option was worse.A dream team at the University of Western Sydney joined forces to rank the physical and psychosocial impact of being overweight or suffering from an eating disorder among over 4,000 women. Overweight women had significant physical “impairment” but relatively minor psychosocial problems. Those with eating disorders, on the other hand, had more physical and psychosocial distress than their fat-but-okay-at-eating peers.
The take-home message: being overweight isn’t awesome, but having an eating disorder is worse for your physical and psychiatric health. So, you know, if you had to pick one…
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I love this study, Katie! Of course, I think we all could have reached the same conclusion without spending the bucks…
Oh, I agree – I feel that way about so many studies, though!
What I found upsetting in this case is that there is even a place in culture for a study like this to occur…has it really gotten so bad that researchers are wondering whether people are better off being overweight or eating disordered? Yikes!!
Katie:
I agree it’s quite sad that researchers are wondering what is the lesser of the two evils. Why is that so many of us are one or the other? It seem the minority today are those people who are healthy, happy, and not obsessed with eating or not eating!