Showing posts with label court date kimkins. Show all posts
Showing posts with label court date kimkins. Show all posts

Eating Disorders News and Views: November 15, 2011



















Warning: Some articles may be triggering


Anorexia and Cheerleading: A Dangerous Combination
By Samantha Van Vleet

Anorexia, a very serious and life-threatening eating disorder, appears to occur more commonly among the aesthetic sports, such as figure skating, gymnastics and cheerleading.

A growing concern regarding anorexia has become evident in the cheerleading realm. In fact, Gymnastics Australia has banned cheerleaders from wearing uniforms that expose their stomach. This decision may have been led to by research conducted that suggested cheerleaders who bared their stomachs in uniform were at a greater risk for developing eating disorders.

What is anorexia?

Anorexia is commonly used to describe the eating disorder anorexia nervosa, characterized by excessive dieting and calorie restriction to the point of emaciation. Anorexia, although it prevents physical symptoms, is thought of as a psychological disorder as the underlying cause is usually emotional.

What are the symptoms of anorexia?

Cheerleaders suffering from anorexia are likely to exhibit incredibly odd eating habits and behaviors. A cheerleader may have lost substantial amounts of weight in a relatively short period of time and may over-exercise. Cheerleaders suffering from anorexia are also likely to suffer from hair, skin and nail issues, such as dry, flaky skin, discolored skin, hair loss and brittle purple fingernail beds. Additionally, a cheerleader may exhibit the signs and symptoms of depression and may seem preoccupied with her weight and size.
Read Cheerleading ED in full here.


Images of airbrushed fashion models should come with 'cigarette-packet' warning, says Norwegian minister
By Ian Sparks
Mail Online

Images of airbrushed fashion models should come with a ‘cigarette-packet’ style health warning in a bid to tackle eating disorders in teenage girls, a government minister in Norway has declared.

Advertisements of super-skinny models are causing young women to starve themselves to obtain ‘unobtainable ideal bodies’, equalities minister Audun Lysbakken said.

He has called for stark warnings on all posters and press adverts when a photo has been digitally altered.

One suggested text for the warning reads: 'This advertisement has been altered and presents an inaccurate image of how this model really looks.'

We have to reduce the pressure the beauty ideal generates.' The call comes after countries including Spain, Italy and Brazil have all clamped down on skinny models at catwalk shows.
Read Warning Label in full here.


My five-year bulimia nightmare, by Diane Keaton
Mail Online

Diane Keaton has spoken for the first time about her 'awful' five-year battle with bulimia.

The actress revealed that she used to gorge herself on huge tubs of ice cream before making herself sick.

She said she was a struggling actress when she was ordered to lose 10lb for a part in the original Broadway production of Hair in 1968. It was the beginning of her bulimia nightmare.

Miss Keaton, now 65, said that she did not think her condition was called bulimia at the time, but it was real for her. 'It was just this trick you could do,' she added. 'It's a horrible problem. Ugly and awful.'

After undergoing psychotherapy – what she called the 'talking cure' – she one day realized that she did not want to binge any more.

Miss Keaton – who dated a string of Hollywood stars including Woody Allen, Warren Beatty and Al Pacino but never married – claimed that she was not beautiful, even when she was younger.

'I was friendly looking, no Candy Bergen,' she said. 'The smile, maybe, was all I had.'

Her disclosures may surprise many as she is known for shunning the spotlight – Vanity Fair magazine once described her as 'the most reclusive star since Garbo'. But now she has written a memoir, Then Again, due out next week.
Read Keaton in full here.


Vail health: Bulimia and the brain
Adolescent anorexia stems from both nurture and nature
Randy Wyrick

VAIL — Don't put your kid on a diet, because diets don't work, says Dr. Kenneth Weiner, an expert in eating disorders and brain development.

Within three years, 90 percent of people weigh more than they did before the diet. The other 10 percent have built lifestyle changes into their lives, Weiner said.

Weiner is co-founder, CEO and chief medical officer of the Eating Recovery Center in Denver and has been treating eating disorders for more than 25 years. He talked to Colorado School Counselors Association's annual conference at the Vail Cascade Resort & Spa on Friday.

To help adolescents avoid eating disorders, concentrate on who they are and not what they are, what's on the inside rather than what's on the outside, he said.

“We live in an obese society and childhood obesity is going to break the healthcare bank. My patients are the collateral damage,” Weiner said.

Nurture vs. nature
Eating disorders stem from nurture more than nature, he said, and so many things can feed that beast: Trauma, certain interests and hobbies, modeling, dancing, swimming, violence, culture, media.

“For many people with an eating disorder, it's preceded by some sort of trauma,” Weiner said.

Still, genetics play a role.

Between 40 to 50 percent of the risk is genetic. Fifty to 60 percent is psychosocial. If her mother has it, a girl is 12 times more likely.

It's as inheritable as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, Weiner said, and it's treatable.
Read Vail in full here.


10% OF GIRLS ARE FANS OF PRO-ANOREXIA WEBSITES
By Lucy Johnston and Chloe Randall
Express UK


ALARMING numbers of teenagers are using a network of underground “pro-anorexia” websites that glamorise and promote the life-threatening eating disorder.

New research reveals that more than 10 per cent of schoolgirls aged 13 to 17 have used a pro-anorexia site, and almost six per cent of boys, despite high-profile search engines blocking them after media outrage.

A Sunday Express investigation has discovered that many sites have gone underground, allowing access only to those who know a password.

Tips and tricks to reach a “goal weight” include eating cotton wool, inflicting pain to inhibit cravings and viewing pictures of skinny models, celebrities and other site users to boost motivation.

There are also suggestions on how to dupe family and friends that a meal has been eaten.

Websites may have trademark emblems with which followers ­demonstrate their dedication to an anorexic lifestyle, such as a red bracelet, worn by celebrity Nicole Richie and actress Lindsay Lohan in the past. Mary George, of eating disorder charity Beat, said: “These sites should act responsibly. Anorexia and bulimia are dangerous activities and people can be encouraged to copy them.”
Read 10% in full here.


Former child star to host eating disorders TV series


Former child star Tracey Gold is to share her experiences with anorexia as the host of a new U.S. reality show about eating disorders.

The actress, who battled the illness while starring in hit sitcom Growing Pains, will be seen working with patients undergoing intensive treatment for anorexia or bulimia as part of U.S. series Starving Secrets.

Gold admits shooting the show was an emotional rollercoaster, but she hopes it will give audiences an insight into the participants’ fear of gaining weight.

She tells The Daily Beast, “It’s not an easy show to watch, but it’s riveting and it really lets you know what it’s like. When we first started, every story tore me apart. I had such a close relationship to the subjects. As we got further along, I was able to get some distance.”
Read ED TV series in full here.


Anorexic Mum Fits into Seven-year-old Daughter’s Clothes

by Savitha.C.Muppala

A 26-year-old mum and her seven year old daughter look pretty much the same as the mother can easily fit into the daughter’s clothes.

Rebecca is extremely proud of the fact that she weighs just five stone and easily fits into the clothes meant for seven or eight year olds.
Rebecca has been a victim of anorexia for most part of her life. She recalls that it all began after she started putting on weight at the age of 13 following her parents’ divorce.
Read Anorexic Mum in full here.


How do lesbians' and gay women experience anorexia and bulimia?

Health Canal

A psychology PhD student at UWE Bristol (University of the West of England) is researching lesbians' experiences of anorexia and bulimia and how these experiences may be similar to and different from those of heterosexual women.

The research involves in-depth interviews with self-identified lesbian women who are experiencing anorexia and/or bulimia.

Researcher Rebecca Jones said, “This new research will build on the pilot study I did at UWE Bristol as an undergraduate, which has just been published by the online journal Psychology and Sexuality.

“My motivations stem from having past experience of an eating disorder and self-identifying as a lesbian. When I started University I became interested in lesbians' eating disordered experiences from a research perspective which prompted me to explore the literature further in my undergraduate research project.”

According to Rebecca, there is now a considerable body of research exploring how our culture's norms and ideas about gender impact upon girls' and women's experiences of anorexia and bulimia and heterosexual girls' and women's experiences of anorexia and bulimia.

“However,” she says, “much less is known about lesbian experiences of anorexia and bulimia. The article I have just published explores some of the similarities and differences between lesbian and heterosexual women's experiences of anorexia and/or bulimia. Analysing interviews with a small number of self-identified lesbian women with a history of anorexia and/or bulimia indicates that many of the ways in which these women described their eating disorders were similar to those identified in research with girls and women assumed to be heterosexual – such as a search for identity, an exertion of self-control, and a pursuit of feminine beauty.
Read Experience Anorexia and Bulimia in full here.


Teens who eat with parents less likely to be depressed
By Simon Collins


Kiwi teenagers who eat meals with Mum and Dad are less likely to be depressed and much less likely to be suicidal, a new study has found.

Teenagers who eat with their families frequently are also less likely to binge drink, smoke cigarettes or cannabis or use inconsistent contraception.

They are more likely to eat fruit and vegetables and less likely to eat fast food. But, apparently because of other lifestyle factors, they are just as likely to be overweight.

The study, published today by the Families Commission, is based on Auckland University's Youth 2007 survey of 9100 New Zealand high school students. Previous reports have shown that the teens were happier, less likely to be depressed, had better nutrition and were more physically active than in a similar survey in 2001.

The first survey did not ask about family meals, but the latest one found that 24 per cent of teens ate meals with all or most of their family less than three times in the previous week.

The other three-quarters ate meals with the family three to six times a week (41 per cent) or at least seven times a week (35 per cent).
Read Eat With Parents in full here.

Eating Disorders News And Views October 1st, 2011

 
Protect Our Girls and Pass the Self-Esteem Act

The simple fact is there's an epidemic crisis of confidence affecting girls and women, and both its causes and effects are going largely ignored and unspoken in and by the mainstream.

We're asking for support to pass federal legislation requiring advertising and editorial that's meaningfully changed the human form through photoshopping or airbrushing to carry "Truth in Advertising" labels. The labels will simply state that the models shown have been altered. No judgments, no morality, just clarity. Clarity that may help address and stem these horrifying numbers:

- 42% of girls in grades 1-3 want to be thinner
- 51% of 9-10 year old girls feel better about themselves when they're dieting
- 53% of 13 year old girls are unhappy with their bodies; by the time they're 17, 78% of them will be
- By the time they're 17, these girls have seen 250,000 TV commercials telling them they should be a decorative object, sex object or a body size they can never achieve (actually, Donna gave me this statistic, so no doubt you;re quite familiar.)
- 7 million girls and women under 25 suffer from eating disorders
- 80% of women feel worse about themselves after seeing a beauty ad. $20B is spent on beauty marketing in the US annually. That's a lot of money being spent making women feel worse about themselves.
To Sign and Read in full: Self-Esteem-Act


Research & Treatment for Teens with Eating Problems

Columbia University Medical Center

About the Study
An MRI Study of Adolescents with Bulimia Nervosa

We are interested in learning why some people develop eating disorders. We are recruiting girls (ages 12-19) who have a problem with binge-eating and purging and girls who do not.

Participation in this study involves interviews, games and puzzles, as well as taking pictures of your brain using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). There are no known health hazards associated with MRI.

Treatment, free of charge, will be provided for girls in need. Compensation (up to $400) will also be provided for participation. Parental consent is required for girls under 18 years of age.
Read in full: Teens with ED Problems


Proposed Legislation: Warning Labels On Photoshopped Ads?

A newly proposed piece of legislation proposes to mandate that all advertisements whose images have been altered with Photoshop bear a warning label alerting the public to the practice. Husband and wife team Seth, a former CAA Agent and Global CMO of Live Nation, and Eva Matlins, co-founders of online women’s magazine Off Our Chests see the modification of women’s bodies without it being made clear “a wrongful act that’s led to increasing cases of emotional disorders.”

The answer, they believe, is government action. “Similar conversations have taken over the past few years,” they write in a press release. “However, to date, no action has taken place in the U.S.” In response, the Matlins propose The Self Esteem Act in order to encourage government and media to work together to address the body issues plaguing women and girls in the country.
Read in full: Warning Labels


Sexy Anna Rexia: Eating Disorders As Machisma

It’s almost October and you know what that means: Here come the goblins, ghosts, witches, and sluts!

The sleaziness of women’s (and little girls’) Halloween costumes has become an annual gripe for mommies and feminists.

But my friend Jeannine Gailey, PhD, a sociologist at Texas Christian University, clued me in on what might be the most appalling costume ever created: Anna Rexia, the sexy side of a life-threatening eating disorder.

Yikes.
Read in full: Anna Rexia 


Somerset Woman Shortlisted to Win Grant to Help People With Eating Disorders

A WEDMORE woman is in the running to win a £10,000 grant to help people with eating disorders – but needs your vote.
Jane Smith supported two of her daughters through anorexia and in 2004 set up the Anorexia Bulimia Care’s befriending service, which supports families affected by an eating disorder via the telephone or email.
Now cosmetic giant Avon has shortlisted Jane in its Hello Tomorrow Fund 2011, along with five other finalists from across the country. Jane said she was delighted to be shortlisted and the money could make a real difference to the charity, which receives thousands of calls each month.
She said: “I speak to around 2,000 people a year personally. The £10,000 grant from Avon would make a real difference to my wish to develop an Anorexia Bulimia Care’s befriending service. I ask local people to vote for our project now and help make my dream a reality.”
Jane’s daughters suffered eating disorders aged 11 and 13, but have since fully recovered.
Jane said: “Our whole world turned upside down. We were a happy, loving family and then we were suddenly plunged into a nightmare. You can’t force someone to eat against their will.
“Our 11-year-old lost a third of her body weight over eight weeks and had to be tube fed for two weeks, for 24 hours a day.”
Read in full: Shortlisted


R.E.S.P.E.C.T.

I recently found out that September is National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month. Wow! A month to honor fat kids! Way to go!!!
OOOPS!
Sorry. It’s a month devoted to ending childhood obesity. And the state of Georgia has a poster child. Or should I say poster children?
I suppose it pays to have clout. After all, if the First Lady of the United States wants to declare a month after her personal pet project, who am I to complain? If I were the First Lady, I may declare a month after something close to my heart as well. I just MAY declare MAY as: Everyone Loves Everyone Else No Matter What They Look Like Month!  (ELEENMWTLLM!).
Read in full: R.E.S.P.E.C.T.


Heidi Diaz, Kimkins creator, is one of this years inductees into the 2011Rogues Gallery.

The Rogues Gallery was designed to hold people like Heidi Diaz.  She had no problem being the first person to snuggle up to the otherwise reviled Kevin Trudeau.  She duped people out of money, she lied about a diet that was found to be unhealthy and has since modified the diet and continues to try to sell it.  She asked people to send her cheques when the court ordered her Paypal account money because she claimed that was the only money she had.  She lied so often and so poorly it is amazing that she is not sitting in jail....She is an unrepentant con woman who continues to operate her website, but now she has finally added the court ordered warning to her page.  It is in the barely visible colour of off-white on a white background.

Seriously, her own webpage says she has engaged in false advertising fraudulent business practices.
Read in full:  Heidi Diaz Rogues Gallery


Dieting NZ Women, Girls 'Losing Chance of Children

Kiwi women and girls are dieting their way out of a chance to have children, says a leading fertility specialist.
Dr Stella Milsom says young women should slow down, eat more and exercise moderately - or pay "too great a price".
The Auckland Fertility Associates endocrinologist said she was sick of reading stories trumpeting the weight loss of the same celebrities who visited her clinic for treatment.
"It really frustrates me when I see my patients written up in the women's magazines when I know they've got the bones of an 80-year-old."
Read in full: Losing Chance of Children

 
Physician Focus: Eating Disorders on the Rise

As many as 10 million females and 1 million males in the U.S. are affected by eating disorders, including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder. These conditions are often hard to detect, carry great shame, and present severe physical and mental health problems for patients. Many of those afflicted are young adolescents, teenagers and young adults.

The vast majority of patients with anorexia and bulimia some 85-95 percent are women. Binge eating disorder affects about 2 percent of all adults up to 4 million Americans, affecting slightly more women than men. Recent studies have discovered an increasing incidence of these disorders among males. The peak onset of these conditions occurs during late puberty and in the late teenage and early adult years.

Anorexia nervosa is characterized by a refusal to maintain a normal body weight through self-induced starvation. Bulimia nervosa consists of episodes of binge eating consuming large amounts of food in a short amount of time in a way that feels out of control followed by actions to compensate for overeating, such as vomiting, restricting food or the use of laxatives. Those suffering from anorexia and bulimia have common traits: they fear gaining weight, are fixated on losing weight, and are very dissatisfied with their bodies. Binge eating disorder consists of consuming large amounts of food but without the compensatory actions to purge one's system; it's often associated with obesity.

Medicine has yet to pinpoint the specific causes of these illnesses, but we do know that certain factors contribute to them. Among them are cultural issues, such as the pressure to be thin or fit a certain body size or image, and stressful psychological situations, such as traumatic events in childhood, troubled personal relationships, or major changes in life.
Read in full: Eating Disorders Rise


Is Your Child Cutting?

Self-inflicted behaviors include cutting and burning oneself without the intent of suicide. It is a new trend that is becoming glorified especially on the internet. Here's how to identify such behavior and how to help your child.

It appears that there are a plethora of websites dedicated for the instruction and glorification of self-inflicted behaviors (SIB). One research study examined 100 videos on the internet regarding SIB and found that there were 2 million hits on some of these websites. 80 percent of these videos had no viewer restrictions. 58 percent had no warning of content. The question stands, “Do these types of websites glorify and encourage self-abuse?” With the amount of activity on these websites, it would seem that non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) has developed a cult following.

Here are some facts about NSSI:

1. Cutting and burning usually occurs in adolescent females with the average age of 16.

2. The cutting and burning usually occurs on arms, legs and torso. These areas are easily covered by bracelets and clothing.
Read in full: Is Your Child Cutting?

sources linked above

Kimkins Class Action Lawsuit: Court Date Set For October 25th, 2010

 The class action lawsuit against Heidi Diaz (center, top right, bottom right in picture above), owner and founder of the Kimkins diet site, is scheduled to go to trial at the Riverside County Courthouse in California on October 25, 2010.

Recap:
Heidi Diaz, also known as Kimmer, claimed to have lost nearly 200 pounds in less than a year and to have maintained her weight at 118 pounds for approximately 5 years. Starting an online dieting site based on these claims she sold memberships to access the plan(s) she created. The site included many success stories accompanied by before and after pictures of amazing transformations, including her own which showed a picture of a young, beautiful woman in a clingy red dress (top left of picture). The success stories seemed too good to be true and, as it would turn out, they were
A private investigator, Robert Charlton of Alliance Investigative Services, was hired and discovered that Heidi Diaz was not what she claimed to be. Ex members and concerned citizens, banning together to uncover the fraud, discovered that she had littered her website with elaborate fabricated success stories that she had written herself, taking the before and after pictures from online Russian Bride sites, including the picture(s) she claimed to be her after her weight loss (see woman in red dress, upper left hand corner of picture above)

Heidi Diaz, having no medical, science, or nutritional background, doled out dangerous diet advice that promoted extremely low calories, laxative use, and anorexic eating behaviors and practices. Members who dared to question "Kimmer," state their concerns on her website, or question the validity of her success stories, found themselves locked out of the site, without warning or reimbursement of their "lifetime membership" fees.

Kimkins received an F rating by the Better Business Bureau: We strongly question the company’s reliability for reasons such as that they have failed to respond to complaints, their advertising is grossly misleading, they are not in compliance with the law’s licensing or registration requirements, their complaints contain especially serious allegations, or the company’s industry is known for its fraudulfent business practices.

*It is estimated that Heidi Diaz's scam netted her well over 2 million dollars.


It would be nearly impossible to site all that has happened since the fraud was first discovered. Below are some links that cover some of what has transpired in the last 3 years.