A 16-year-old girl from Hyderabad was desperate to lose weight in an attempt to be ‘popular’ among her peers. Eating lesser and lesser with each passing day and finding no immediate result, she stopped eating completely for two days. Soon she fainted, and was diagnosed as anaemic. Another 10-year-old girl from Chennai had to be coaxed to eat. Biting a quarter of an apple, she would swim for over an hour to work it off. Her distraught parents are now seeking medical help. These are scenarios that are being played out every other day in India as the world over ‘thinspiration’ catches the imagination of the young and the not-so-young as well. Back in the Eighties when Cyndi Lauper crooned ‘Girls Just Want To Have Fun’, she was perhaps echoing the sentiment of that entire generation of women. In the intervening years, the fairer sex explored the moon, climbed Mt Everest, occupied the prime ministerial chair, and juggled home and workplace and above it all aspired to be slim and beautiful.
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They still do. Maybe it’s time to rewrite the lyrics of that famous song. Perhaps ‘Girls Just Want To Be Thin and Beautiful’ would find resonance with women now. The mirror becomes a foe, not a friend, and the mania accelerates, leading to eating disorders like anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa—the two ends of the weight spectrum.
Just like hips don’t lie, statistics too do not. A recent study shows that the incidence of anorexia nervosa is 10-20 times higher in females. Figures depict that 90-95 per cent of patients suffering from this condition are women. This indicates how deeply ‘thinspiration’ has stuck the youth in India, who will do everything in their power—even self-destruct—if it can help achieve their desire. Add to this hundreds of quick-fix remedies—from pills, diets, exercises to surgeries. Thanks to the diet-conscious, the health foods sector is poised to grow at a CAGR of 20 per cent to Rs 22,500 crore by 2015.
There is a thin line between being skinny and being anorexic. Being thin is a philosophy that teenagers seem to have embraced with increasing enthusiasm. But the fallout is that it has led them to eating disorders.
As usual, every late 20th trend started in the US, and so did being skinny. Dieting dates back to the 1840s, when Presbyterian minister Sylvester Graham propagated a plain, abstinent food for women as the key to health and morality. “Spices, stimulants and other over-indulgences lead to indigestion, illness, sexual excess and civil disorder,” he preached. His followers ate mostly bread made of coarse graham flour and vegetables and water. Later in the 1860s, the Banting diet (created by William Banting—a protein-heavy prototype for today’s Atkins diet—became popular and led to an anti-fat obsession.
Body image is a touchy subject. “Once you’ve been body shamed, it’s something that you never forget,” says Pooja Arora, certified trainer and weight loss coach, who works with corporate clients in Bengaluru. As was this case of a girl who was tired of being ridiculed about being obese. Says Dr Swapna Rajeev, dietician, KIMS Healthcare and Management Ltd, Kochi: “She resorted to sticking her index figure in her throat and puking out the food. The girl was hesitant to even drink water, fearing it would make her fatter.” Kochi-based Dr Althiya Roy, dietician at Lakeshore Hospital, cites many 15 to 25-year-old females who do not mind cutting down on their meals, leading to anorexia, starving and vomiting, to attain a good figure.
Healthcare professionals point out that it’s unhealthy for certain people to lose weight as their bodies are not made that way. “Many people struggle to lose weight despite taking several measures. This is because they are built that way and it would be unscientific for them to try and lose weight,” explains Dr Hari Kishan Boorugu, consultant physician at Apollo Hospitals, Hyderabad.
Then again, the situation gets tricky when genetics come into play or what is now dubbed as ‘thin-heritance’, which gets passed down from generation to generation. Thin-heritance is when a mother is critical about her body and is overly anxious about her child’s appearance and weight, thus creating a fertile ground for poor body image and eating disorders. Says Dr Dharini Krishnan, a Chennai-based dietician, “A mother worries if her child puts on some weight or is little underweight. While a 10-year-old weighing 80 kilos is a cause for concern, some mothers get anxious if the child puts on an extra kilo or two.” She cites the case of a 15-year-old who, being admonished by her mother for putting on weight, refused to eat. It took a team of a psychotherapist, physician and nutritionist to get her back on track.
Many are quick to lay the entire blame at the media’s door. “The media is to blame but not directly. Week after week, viewers are subjected to images of skinny models walking the ramp and they aspire to be like them,” says Krishnan. The modelling industry is often held as one of the worst offenders in terms of promoting an unhealthy body image. Fashion guru Prasad Bidappa, who has been credited with ‘finding’ well-known faces like Lara Dutta, Anushka Sharma and Dino Morea, thinks that the situation in India is better than in the West. “Here an unhealthy body image doesn’t seem to have been a huge problem, because anyway Indian clothes don’t look good on size-zero models, and we’ve always had a preference for a more voluptuous figure,” he says. He works with models typically around size eight to 10.
Maybe the fashion industry should also share the blame. Abercrombie & Fitch makes clothes only for size 10 or smaller—no exceptions. Bidappa is steadfast in his advice to models: eat three substantial meals a day and snack on raw vegetables. In agreement is former model Smitha Rao, who says, “I never dieted, just ate sensibly and did cardio and weight training every day.” Adds Bidappa, “I’ve seen anorexia occasionally become a problem for girls who may have got carried away, but these instances are random.”
Film celebrities as role models are nothing uncommon. One looks at their glowing complexions and sculpted bodies, and aspires to be like them. Take the groovy handsome Arjun Kapoor, who has a body to envy for. While many youngsters would love to be in his shoes, not many know that until five years ago, he weighed 140 kilos. Today, he is a happy 85 kilos. He reveals, “I was asthmatic at 22, and couldn’t run for more than 10 seconds at a stretch. I was very temperamental and vented all my anger on others. I used to eat a lot of rice, and would eat to my heart’s content. When my dadi (grandmother) cooked all those dishes, I would relish them. Salman (Khan) kept telling me that I should lose weight and turn to acting. One day I told him I wanted to do it and from then, there has been no looking back.”
Mollywood actor Unni Mukundan, who also went through the exercise plus ‘eat well’ route, says, “The eating disorder is common among girls and boys. Skipping breakfast and eating junk could only lead to disaster. Earlier, women did physical work at home which helped them remain slim. In their minds, they aspire for that perfect figure which they feel can be achieved by skipping meals.” Actress Lena feels that while skipping meals and a crash diet would help one look slimmer, it does not really make them fit. It only breaks down one’s muscles instead of fat.
Bollywood actress Kareena Kapoor Khan, one of the catalysts of size-zero figure in Indian showbiz, says, “It’s important to eat the right kind of nutritious food. I don’t indulge in protein shakes; instead I have small portions of meals eight times a day which keeps me full. The day you start dieting it shows on your skin. You get dark circles and your skin looks lacklustre. I begin my day with a banana milk shake which keeps me energetic. Every three hours I snack on nuts or soya milk. I eat home-cooked food. I have lots of paneer since I am a vegetarian. I love kheer and jalebis, but I have everything in moderation.” She also does yoga and 100 surya namaskars to keep her body supple.
The need to slim down has spawned a thriving industry promising weight loss, fit, toned bodies and whatnot. “People don’t come to me to improve their nutrition. Rather, they ask how they can shed a dress size or two,” says Arora. With these ambitions, it’s all too easy to fall prey to ‘quick fix’ solutions and extreme diets. As a diet counsellor, she’s often had to deal with the aftermath of such experiments. “I’ve seen clients who’ve done everything from eating nothing but bananas for three days, to a diet that included only protein bars and egg whites,” she shares. Her experience is that ‘quick fixes’ don’t exist, and she’s particularly wary of the recent trend towards liquid detoxes.
Bengaluru-based finance professional Palak Khanna came out wiser after choosing a ‘miracle diet’ recommended to her by a friend. The diet focused on one type of food per week—if it was a ‘fruit week’, she’d eat only apples one day, oranges the next. Other weeks focused on different food types—from pizza to Maggi noodles. “I lost 15 kilos over three months, and was so euphoric about the weight loss that I didn’t realise the health implications,” says Khanna, who eventually started experiencing hair fall and her blood tests revealed dangerously low levels of serotonin.
Expecting quick results is also foolish. Says Dr Madhurima Sinha, dietician at Care Hospitals, Hyderabad: “I come across many programmes which guarantee weight loss of 10 kilos within a month. But this is not right as people cannot lose weight in just a month. It is a gradual process and one must be very diligent and determined to achieve significant results.” Taking a stern view of young girls attempting to lose weight, Sinha says, “What they are doing is basically malnourishment. Physical exercise along with a healthy diet is more than enough to achieve weight loss.”
Also, trying too hard to lose weight brings on other health scares. “The problem with trying too hard is that people develop nutrient deficiency, vitamin deficiency and other such symptoms. And all these laxatives have significant side-effects; they lead to weakness of the body, anaemia and other such implications,” cautions Boorugu.
He prescribes the best way to lose weight is to eat more meals in small quantities. “It’s almost like you’re having a meal six to seven times a day. One has to make a schedule. In the long run, such a diet with exercise will help in reducing weight,” he says.
There is no one diet that fits all. Krishnan says, “Those with weight issues should get professional help. Some will starve, eat only fruits and be happy to lose 10 kilos only to gain it all back. What is good for a person of 40 might not suit a 14-year-old.” Similarly, one might have a role model in a sportsperson but to become like them is rather ambitious. Take boxer Vijender Singh, whose toned abs and bulging biceps are not just the product of some stringent weight-training regimen; rather they are built with care, giving power to muscles to deliver that knockout punch. Says the pugilist, “My diet is high on iron, but it is not something I would recommend for kids. One has to do weight-training under a very able guide. For a boxer, bulk is not everything. One has to be flexible. Sit-ups are an age-old solution for strong abs.” However, he says one cannot neglect the mind. “Yoga and meditation are two mediums that I really believe in. My day is not complete without them,” he shares. Indian national football team skipper Sunil Chhetri relies on a balanced diet with a little more of carbohydrates before a game. “You are what you eat,” he points out.
To top it all, myths abound. Says Krishnan, “Milk is fattening is a myth. For instance, 100 ml of milk has 67 calories and 3.2 grams of fat which youngsters will shun but not bat an eyelid when consuming burgers and fries which outweigh milk’s calories. Similarly, many believe that warm water plus lime will help in losing weight, but that is not something that can be done arbitrarily. Even Ayurveda has rules depending on the body type.”
In life, as in health, it makes sense to follow the middle path—everything in moderation. There’s no need to indulge in revolutionary new technologies, diet pills or eccentric eating plans. Growing old gracefully is important too. If nothing else, get the magic mirror. When you peer at it, it is wont to squeak, “You look gorgeous!”
With Maegan Dobson Sippy, Suhas Yellapantula, N Jagannath Das, Swaroop Swaminathan, Indraneel Das, Shama Bhagat