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51.8%ANMag Issue 22 Public Surveillance
Obsessive Dieting Disorder: The Fruit of Today’s Society
By Suha Karaky, Managing Editor
Beirut, Lebanon — Nariman, weighing in at a hefty 110 kilos, hopelessly tried for 14 years to lose weight. She had lost hope in making her dream come true until her neighbor, Mona, told her about her “secret” diet. “The one question I had in mind was: will it work?” said Nariman. “But I’m going to try it anyway.”
After one month, Nariman, 25, has not lost one kilo.
Nariman is one of the many Lebanese, who try all kinds of diets and, yet, get no results.
In Lebanon, like most countries all over the world, saturated by Western media, the norm is for a girl to be slim, sexy and stylish. It is not unusual for an unmarried young woman to spend more than an hour in putting on clothes and makeup. Many women, whether a 16-year-old, hanging at Dunes, a shopping mall, a 43-year-old housewife, wishing to slim out for her husband, or a 65-year-old grandmother, who does slow aerobics to Haifa, a popular TV aerobic instructor — all are dying to diet.
“I weigh myself every morning to see if I have gained anything,” said Manal Kabbani, 21-year-old university student. “If it shows that I’m half a kilo plus, I simply don’t eat during the day, and the problem is solved.”
A survey conducted at the Lebanese University, the Lebanese American University and Haigazian University showed that 63% of the 100 females asked diet in an on-off manner throughout the year. Twenty-two percent do that at least once per year, to stay in shape. The remaining 15% were thin women, who try to find ways to gain some extra weight.
Not only the female sex is concerned with staying lean, “Men are also doing their best to maintain an appropriate body weight,” said Ali Hajjar, owner of ProGym health club, located in one of the crowded areas of Beirut. “Almost everyone is starting to work out and to ask the coach here for a good diet they can count on.”
With the majority of Lebanese attempting to lose extra weight or to stay in shape, dieticians are starting to come up with their own diets.
Carla Yardemian, a Nutrition graduate from Paris, was frequently mentioned in many women gatherings, TV shows and radio programs. The diet that she provides is based on proteins in the form of sachets. “The main thing about this regime, which I imported from France,” said Yardemian, a thin, elegant-looking brunette “is that the patient relies on these sachets as the major food source.”
If a person is over-weight and needs to lose 15 kilos, s/he can only eat what the envelopes contain throughout the day, in addition to drinking water. These sachets contain powdered proteins, which can be added to water to make up various dishes such as chocolate mousse, strawberry shake and a variety of soups.
Not everyone has a will power of steel to eat only these sachets.
“It was a bit hard at first, but then I got used to it and lost 10 kilos in two months,” said Lara Labban, 35. “But I started to feel dizzy and weak, and I couldn’t continue with the diet.”
Yardemian started to lose many of her patients, said the dietician’s former secretary who preferred to remain anonymous. “Her diet was beginning to become old-fashioned, and others were introduced.”
After Yardemian’s diet started to lose popularity, Lebanese turned to another savior. “Ricardo was really amazing,” said Salwa Daher, 22-year-old LAU student, referring to once-rising star who is know simply by one name. “He helped me lose 15 kilos in three months.”
Ricardo based his diet on a “one-type-of-food method,” he said. For example, people were asked to eat bananas one day, drink milk the second and eat salad the third.
Although many family practitioners disapproved of Ricardo’s diet, his star ascended. “I couldn’t believe what he was doing,” said Mohammed Hawili, a doctor at Trad Hospital. “He was depriving people of many important vitamins, but, still, they went on with it,” he added, face frowning.
Like Yardemian, Ricardo’s star started to descend. “The thing about Lebanon is that whenever something is new, the run to it,” said Dima Assaf, a 30-year-old housewife. “After that, they get bored and something new comes and attracts their attention.”
Ghiwa Salibi, in a recent article in the Lebanese magazine al-Hasnaa magazine gave the readers new diets from all over the world — Canada, Japan, the US and India.
“We are not the only ones who care about staying in shape,” said Salibi. “These diets that I have discussed in my article show that even the citizens of the most civilized countries do their best to lose weight.”
According to numerous sociological studies worldwide, in Arab and Western countries, losing weight has become an “obsession,” as Jean-Luis Monteau, a French anthropologist said. As weight decreased, studies showed, cases of anorexia nervosa and bulimia increased.
“There are sites on the internet where anorexics can meet and advise each other,” said Amr Adeeb, in a recent episode of the TV show al-Kahira al-Yawm, or Cairo Today. Adeeb added that teenagers are affected by supermodels, singers and actresses who always look thin and beautiful.
Recently, obese women in the United States have started to speak out, saying that they are “normal” and deserve to be treated like their thinner counterparts. They have also modeled in a fashion show, in which sports wear for over-weights were displayed.
“Society is really harsh on us and treats us in a very terrible way,” said Nariman, who has tried and failed for 14 years to lose weight. She has been over-weight since birth because her mother took Cortisone pills during pregnancy. “Many of us are fat because of sickness, and people don’t bother to ask and simply make fun of us,” Nariman said, tears filling her eyes.
The media, whether TV, magazines, or billboards, depict skinny people as “perfect beings” and over-weights as “outcasts,” said Touma Khoury, psychology professor at LAU. “This is affecting children and adults psychologically, and the consequences are really disastrous.”