Dear Readers,
This week has had interesting reports from Europe. First, France is considering legislation that would make promoting eating disorders a crime punishable by fines and imprisonment. Though it is hard to imagine how one could prove that this website or that diet caused an eating disorder, but nevertheless, it is a good sign that the French are beginning to take eating disorders seriously.
Today, I read that Britain’s former deputy prime minister has secretly struggled with bulimia for decades. What amazed me the most was how well this 69 year-old man described his bulimia. He said that his binge eating became a tactic for coping with stress from overwork. CNN at http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/04/20/prescott.bulimia.ap/index.html quotes Mr. Prescott as saying “It became my main pleasure, having access to my comfort food. So what I did was stuff my face with anything around….there would be a weird kind of pleasure in vomiting and feeling relieved.”
Since eating disorders are as big of a problem in most of Western Europe as in the United States, it is a good sign when they are openly discussed by people involved in politics.
Peace, Marcia
Comments