The Medical Freedom Channel

“The most important factor in the successful treatment of eating disorders is improving the patient’s perception of their body — and that’s not an easy task, says a psychologist with the Eating Disorders Program at The Menninger Clinic in Houston. ‘It’s very difficult to do because we live in an anorexic culture where the thin ideal is all we see in the media and people basically have to challenge that definition of beauty in order to recover,’ said Dr. Theresa Fassihi. ‘In research, we’ve found that body image issues are the last thing to change when we are treating people with eating disorders.’ If people complete an eating disorders treatment program but still harbor negative body image thoughts and feelings, ‘they will have a hard time not reverting to their old eating disorder behaviors,’ Fassihi told Reuters Health. [editor’s note: Not entirely sure why this is ‘news’ … seems more like common sense — change your thinking, change your life! - SAT] (02/27/07)