Why do diseases have to have a color?

I am almost beside myself... No I AM besides myself with a news report, on one of our NY stations, i saw when i was making dinner tonight.

It was about eating disorders, more specifically bulimia and anorexia, in the african american community. *scratching head* Did i just hear that correctly? An eating disorder for minorities? They can't be serious.. but oh they were!

They interviewed and followed two african american women; one was a recovering anorexic the other a recovering bulimic. During the interview with Ms. Anorexic she even made the comment that it's a white girls disease. *scratches head again* and was relieved to find a story on the internet about another colored woman that had anorexia. Ms. Bulimic just talked about her story of binging and purging; just what i want to hear when i'm about to eat dinner!

I was really offended not really by the comment "white girls' disease". These two diseases have NOTHING to do with race or color 'technically'. They have everything to do with love of self, self image, and up bringing. If you have a bunch of women in a magazine that are thin then of course girls are going to think that's how you are 'supposed' to look. If you see these magazines and make comment to a proud parent that may be in love with the way she looks despite her size, then that child most likely isn't going to be bothered further by image, because she's happy with herself.

These two women were obviously not to happy with themselves growing up, but how does that make it a 'colored' disease? It's mental/environmental.. all of our brains are grey! holy crap!

By Wikipedia

Environmental

Family and friends are very influential when it comes to eating disorders. The media may be a significant influence on eating disorders through its impact on values, norms, and image standards accepted by modern society.^[17] The media sends a message that "thin is beautiful" in their choice of fashion models, which many young girls want to emulate.^[6] Both society’s exposure to media and eating disorders have grown immensely over the past decade. Researchers and clinicians are concerned about the relationship between these two phenomena and finding ways to reduce the negative influence thin-ideal media has on women’s body perception and susceptibility to eating disorders. The dieting industry makes billions of dollars each year by consumers continually buying products in an effort to be the ideal weight. Hollywood displays an unrealistic standard of beauty that makes the public feel incredibly inadequate and dissatisfied and forces people to strive for an unattainable appearance. People, such as teachers or counselors, who work closely with young women and men and who come into contact with them regularly are in a position to detect warning signs and possible eating disordered symptoms. Teachers have a particularly important role in detecting eating disorders and changes in behavior in students, as they see them everyday and are able to monitor changes frequently. A resource for teachers to reference in maintaining the health of students, as far as eating disorderes are concerned, can be found at: http://www.something-fishy.org/isf/signssymptoms.php Teachers should also be aware of unhealthy messages sent by classmates about appearance preferences and ideal images of beauty, and these messages should be addressed and corrected. ^[18] This takes an enormous toll on one's self-esteem and can easily lead to dieting behaviors, disordered eating, body shame, and ultimately an eating disorder.^[6] The surrounding culture in which an adolescent is raised greatly affects how they feel they are supposed to look, potentially contributing to an eating disorder. It has been discovered that a chemical imbalance in the brain may be linked to why some people have anorexia and others don’t. The most dangerous part of certain eating disorders is that people who have them “see themselves as overweight even though they are dangerously thin” (National Institute of Health). This fact alone suggests that the person cannot help but see themselves as overweight. Their brain is possibly distorting their image while everyone else is seeing how they really look. Bulimics very often binge and then purge because they feel guilty for eating so much food, even if they are a “weight around their normal weight range” (National Institute of Health).

Nowhere did i read anything in the definition about eating orders being racial.

I really just can not believe i lost 3 minutes of my life to a story about a mental disorder being racial..

When is the news going to let it go? If people want info they can go to their doctors, not some stupid boob tube with news stories and special reports that are forced down our throats by sensationalists that want to stir the shit.