Before we start, I'm not trying to demonize either side. I have my personal opinion for both topics and I am choosing to keep it to myself. This thread isn't about anybody's personal belief on either topic, this is just about trying to discuss why society, for the most part, demonizes undereating more and overeating.
Anyhow, as we can probably all agree, people tend to harbor more negative feelings towards undereating than overeating. What I am wondering is why this is. As for negative effects on bodily health, they can both be equally as bad as one another and can lead to sickness and death.
So, the best that I can come up with isn't about the actual degree of health ramifications. Instead, I think it is two things. The first is the actual reason for why people chose their eating habits. Undereating is, in most cases, due to a negative body image. People who under-eat believe they need to be skinny to impress other people (in the most simplified reasoning), while overeating is a form of self-indulgence. From what I have seen, the idea of self-indulgence is something that people respond better to than the idea of harming yourself to impress others.
The other thing I can think of is that their are many more people who overeat than undereat. We are surrounded by obesity in most of the places where we live, but rarely come across somebody who is noticeably undernourished, and as anybody in a minority group will tell you that as people we tend to be more generally less accepting of groups of people who don't fit into what is considered 'normal' than does who do.
Anyhow, that is my two cents, I was just wondering what other people thought.
Just a note before I leave, remember, this is NOT a thread that is for putting people down or saying their is something wrong with their eating habits. This is just the same as if somebody asked why certain people dislike one political group more than another, or why some people dislike people based on their sexuality i.e. we aren't looking to bash anyone, we are just trying to have a discussion about society. We all talk maturely about topics like those, and I think that while this is admittedly an abnormal topic, it still falls into that same category of societal discussion. So, please, no hatred, no bashing and no hurting people, please. Lets just try to have a nice, mature discussion.
Anyhow, as we can probably all agree, people tend to harbor more negative feelings towards undereating than overeating. What I am wondering is why this is. As for negative effects on bodily health, they can both be equally as bad as one another and can lead to sickness and death.
So, the best that I can come up with isn't about the actual degree of health ramifications. Instead, I think it is two things. The first is the actual reason for why people chose their eating habits. Undereating is, in most cases, due to a negative body image. People who under-eat believe they need to be skinny to impress other people (in the most simplified reasoning), while overeating is a form of self-indulgence. From what I have seen, the idea of self-indulgence is something that people respond better to than the idea of harming yourself to impress others.
The other thing I can think of is that their are many more people who overeat than undereat. We are surrounded by obesity in most of the places where we live, but rarely come across somebody who is noticeably undernourished, and as anybody in a minority group will tell you that as people we tend to be more generally less accepting of groups of people who don't fit into what is considered 'normal' than does who do.
Anyhow, that is my two cents, I was just wondering what other people thought.
Just a note before I leave, remember, this is NOT a thread that is for putting people down or saying their is something wrong with their eating habits. This is just the same as if somebody asked why certain people dislike one political group more than another, or why some people dislike people based on their sexuality i.e. we aren't looking to bash anyone, we are just trying to have a discussion about society. We all talk maturely about topics like those, and I think that while this is admittedly an abnormal topic, it still falls into that same category of societal discussion. So, please, no hatred, no bashing and no hurting people, please. Lets just try to have a nice, mature discussion.
