Be Healthy: Don't Believe the Hype - By: Jennie McCurdy

Who decides how you should look? Have you ever noticed how much influence the media has?

According to the website www.mindonthemedia.org, “reading teen magazines and having exposure to thin models creates lower self-esteem, body dissatisfaction, decreased confidence and potential eating disorder symptoms.” Let’s take that power back and rise above them by being smart and critical about what we see in the media every day. The media is a very useful tool to communicate ideas and tell stories but they are also trying to sell us something by showing us what they think we want to see. What we see in the media is never the true picture. Only 1% of the population looks like the models we see in the magazines and even those pictures of the models are not true representations as they have been airbrushed. Airbrushing is one of the finishing techniques used on a photo to remove any perceived flaws or errors. Parts of bodies are enhanced or made smaller, limbs are shaved off to appear more sculpted or thinner and color of hair, skin or eyes are adjusted. The result is a computer generated model that is not real. The media images of beauty are unattainable. So let’s be smart and accept ourselves. All healthy bodies come in different shapes and sizes. We need to focus on good qualities about ourselves instead of supposed negative qualities. Beauty comes from within……BELIEVE THAT not the media! For more information on healthy eating and body image check out the Dietitians of Canada website: www.dietitians.ca or the National Eating Disorder Information Centre: www.nedic.ca.

By: Jennie McCurdy
Registered Dietician