Professor Dennis VanGerven discusses body image to full crowd
What is beautiful? What is healthy?
Questions like these were addressed on Wednesday by Dr. Dennis VanGerven in his speech titled “Death by Food.”
VanGerven, an anthropology professor at CU, discussed the issues of healthy body images, starvation, bulimia and steroids as part of Body Acceptance Month.
“What is beautiful? What do you want to be beautiful? We invent it,” VanGerven said.
The misconceptions of beauty are distorting the images of the body. People want to be muscular and slender. To achieve this “perfect body”, people use extreme methods such as steroids and starvation. The consequences of these actions are irreversible and fatal, VanGerven said.
Steroid users have the risk of becoming “sterile as a glass of milk,” VanGerven said. Also, homicidal violence is a side effect. Yet steroids keep being used because of this distortion in body perception.
“People keep using these hormonal drugs because they still think their bodies aren’t muscular enough,” VanGerven said.
Crash diets, bulimia and starvation have alarming effects as well.
With each attempt to lose weight through a crash diet, the metabolism lowers making it increasingly difficult to get it back where it was. This causes more weight gain which leads to another crash diet.
“It’s called obesity through repeated crash diets. You’re better off carrying the weight than rebounding,” VanGerven said.
Bulimia also has many harmful effects to the body. Stomach acids tear through the throat, mouth and teeth leaving permanent damage. Bulimia can cause fatality due to cardiovascular problems. The heart loses strength leading to heart failure.
Starvation is another weight loss method with dangerous consequences.
“Starvation makes you lose lean muscle tissue. It’s exactly what you don’t want to be losing,” VanGerven said.
When the body isn’t getting the nutrients it needs, it starts feeding off the things that take the most energy: muscles. This continues until the damage is almost irreversible.
“The heart rate and metabolism goes down and that’s how you die. You just flicker out,” VanGerven said.
Side effects of each “body perfecting method” include psychological issues such as anger and depression.
Despite the consequences, millions of people are plagued with these disorders for superficial goals.
“We do all this just to look good,” VanGerven said
Yet in some areas of the world, people are forced into starvation, not to look beautiful but because they have no choice.
“Our planet is divided. On one half there are 30,000 children dying each day of malnutrition and starvation. On the other half, we have people inducing vomit and starvation. The sheer craziness of it all is overwhelming,” VanGerven said.
Many places around the globe are coping with starvation. The children of Sudan and other areas of Africa are struggling daily with issues of malnutrition. Their muscles are eaten away until they are almost gone. It becomes painful to do common activities including walking.
Some children suffer from Kwashiorkor, a result of malnutrition. Kwashiorkor results from insufficient amounts of protein calories. The cells start to leak moisture into the stomach causing a person to have a large stomach and tiny arms and legs.
The problem with body image is seen everywhere, including Boulder.
“I think it’s a definite issue in Boulder. Everyone is so thin. People here tend to work out way too much,” Kaela Joseph, a senior psychology major, said. “It’s so rare to see an overweight person, or even a person of normal weight. It’s like one in every 200.”
The issues raised by VanGerven received positive attitudes from the audience who thoughth the information was important.
“He was phenomenal, really powerful,” Megan Widhalm, a freshman open-option major. “It was definitely interesting.”
Contact Campus Press staff writer Dana Silva at dana.silva@thecampuspress.com.
