While America is fighting childhood obesity, Asia faces a different kind of nutrition problem – extreme dieting. And experts are blaming Asia’s culture for their women’s obsessive need to be 100-pounds-and-under.
In Hong Kong, Seoul and Tokyo, women and going to extreme measures (from diet pills, to crazy portion control and even checking into slimming clinics) because their perception of beauty is that the skinnier you are, the more people think you actually care about and look after yourself. It could even make a difference between you landing a job or not, and to some being able to study to pass an exam or not. Exercising is also a no-no because muscles are not considered feminine.
Women justify their need to be skinny with wanting to be smaller than their men, so as not to emasculate them.
“Guys here are so small and skinny. They need to feel masculine, and they don’t if you’re bigger than them,” says Agatha Yau, a marketing executive in Hong Kong. “I think to myself that once I get married and have kids, I’ll be able to eat [mouth-watering food].”
Be fit into the 100-pounds-and-under category women in Hong Kong prefer going to slimming centers which offer fat incinerating ultrasound, electrical stimulation and infrared radiation treatments, while the latest fad is ingesting parasites. Other treatments include being bandage with Chinese herbs and then getting into a heat-emitting machine, as well as ultrasonic liposuction.
Patients hospitalized with eating disorders have also spiked over the last few years, with some clinics seeing their figures double and even quadruple. At Peking University’s Institute of Mental Health, more than 100 patients were hospitalized in 2009, compared to 20 patients 10 years ago.
Tags: Weight Loss Tips“Dieting is a life-long career for women,” Yau says. “It’s true for women everywhere, but especially in Hong Kong.”
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