The need for food is a basic need aimed at maintaining homeostasis and obtaining the energy and nutrients necessary for life. However, most people’s eating behavior is determined not only by their body’s needs but also by socio-cultural stereotypes, their upbringing, ways of reacting to external circumstances, and the influence of the media. These factors often provoke the occurrence of two pathological conditions, obesity and anorexia, the spread of which makes many specialists think about the issue of social control of eating behavior. The methods of social control of obesity and weight loss exist nowadays in negative forms; they include restrictions on lifestyle, cause mental problems and relapses, and do not contribute to changing the situation.
Lifestyle change, being one of the traditional ways of treating weight problems, does not lead to long-term results. This method, in more than half of the cases, does not improve the situation and leads to relapse (Meule 253). Controlling daily habits and increasing physical activity levels are not only recommended by nutritionists and dietitians in private counseling but are also becoming part of mass propaganda. The effect of the latter, however, is often negative and even unpredictable. Caroline Knapp provides numerous examples of how social settings make people feel uncomfortable while eating high-calorie food (21). The principles of restrictions in nutrition provoke the guilt of having an eating disorder. Those who had problems with losing weight, being the victims of social control, can later experience anorexia.
In an effort to meet societal standards for healthy eating, obese people try to limit their food intake, but so do people who do not have weight problems and those who need to gain mass. When ordering at a cafe, even a healthy person will find it unacceptable to order more calorie-dense food than the people around them (Knapp 24). At a store, the customer will be overly concerned about how much of what they buy meets the caloric standards. In a company of friends, the one who wants to have a meal feels uncomfortable if the other people are not hungry (Knapp 30). Thus, social control, while struggling with consumption disorders, provokes even more inadequate behavior.
Any external restrictions imposed on people by society provoke the paradoxical opposite action. Propaganda for actively burning calories or forbidding fatty foods is bound to lead to a relapse, and a suicidal weight gain will also cause a further reduction in the diet. According to Knapp’s arguments, this is because social control does not take into account the psychological aspect of such diseases (21). Considering obesity and anorexia in terms of addictions, one of the most ineffective means is to impose demands and restrictions on the patient (Ortiz 60). Some psychologists argue that in dealing with compulsive overeating or weight loss cravings, people should be allowed to become victims of these conditions (Meule 252). They must experience the negative consequences of their health and mental state, including those mentioned in Prose’s essay (7). Such a strategy would create a desire for people to take personal responsibility for their own health and to embark on a conscious path to recovery that is independent of external factors.
Moreover, social control in all its forms is incapable of taking personal characteristics into account. Often eating disorders hide psychological trauma that needs to be treated (Dixon 47). Condemnation and censure can only worsen a person’s condition and provoke the appearance of other complexes and addictions. Treatment of obesity and anorexia is always based on the principle of individualism and does not allow for the creation of universal guidelines and norms.
It is important to remember that eating disorders are, first and foremost, a personal problem, imposing many restrictions on life. Therefore, society should not create additional restrictions but rather contribute to alleviating such people’s conditions (Ortiz 48). Popularization needs to shift from imposing additional limits on people to expanding cultural boundaries, showing that society understands and accepts the social, domestic, and psychological difficulties in dealing with inadequate weight.
Persons who are severely obese or anorexic find it difficult to get a job, and they experience discriminatory promotion restrictions and everyday living inconveniences. There are restrictions in movement, the choice of clothing, discomfort in carrying out adequate hygienic activities, and sexual disorders are often observed (Dixon 11). Francine Prose uses this idea as an argument for the necessity of social control, adding that it will help obedient people (9). Anyway, in this situation, it is more appropriate to speak about changing the existing social standards. For example, while obese people have an extensive selection of clothing in large sizes, anorexics often have to go to children’s departments to find their own clothes. A revision is also needed in catering since standards are needed not only for larger portions but also for smaller portions. The sizes of seats in airplanes are a big problem for obese people since they have to buy one more ticket (Prose 8). Anyway, imposing social control will not prevent those who have already been struggling with overweight for years from this inconvenience.
Thus, social control, expressed in a set of food restrictions and requirements for people’s lifestyles, cannot be considered unambiguously effective. This approach does not take into account the psychological nature of the disease and promotes the formation of stereotypes, complexes, and avoidance of personal responsibility. What is needed in addressing a problem that has become global in recent years is not control but understanding and tolerance, which will allow people to achieve the desired awareness of diet and lifestyle.
Works Cited
Dixon, Jen. Bones: Anorexia, OCD, and Me. JD Associates, 2022.
Knapp, Caroline. “Add Cake, Subtract Self-Esteem.” Appetite: Why Women Want, Counterpoint, 2011, pp. 22–54.
Meule, Adrian. “The Psychology of Food Cravings: The Role of Food Deprivation.” Current Nutrition Reports, vol. 9, no. 3, 2020, pp. 251–57.
Ortiz, Reivan Geovanny Genaro. Eating Behavior Habits. LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing, 2022.
Prose, Francine. “The Wages of Sin”. Gluttony: The Seven Deadly Sins, Oxford University Press, 2003, pp. 7-15.