proposal draft

Topic 1: Popular fad diets vs. Nutrition

Introduction:

As someone who feels constantly unhealthy, I closely follow popular diets in search of a healthier me. I have embarked several diets that left me feeling average at best. For four years I was a vegetarian, vegan for three months, paleo for two months and keto for two months. Each of these diets restricted me from the nutrients I needed, as well as added a layer of problems and complications. They also left me tired, and unable to process things later on when I ended each diet. When I decided to eat meat again after four years, I vividly recall many times where my life was consumed by hovering over a toilet after only a few bites of meat. It greatly impacted my social life, and my doctor warned me that these diets were dangerous to a young adult. After several blood tests, we found that these diets ended up giving more problems than benefits. They found that I was low in important nutrients such as magnesium, potassium, vitamins B12, D, became I became dangerously anemic (low in iron).

Topic Proposal:

My topic is focused on the short/long term effects fad diets and how the youth interprets diets displayed in popular media. Fad diets are diets popularized by the media that typically focus on the elimination of eating certain food groups to achieve weight-loss. However, this leads to a huge impact of nutrition given that restriction of entire food groups can erase one’s intake and even ability to process vital nutrients. The most common diets suggest limiting consumption of carbohydrates, fats or/and over-indulging in foods such as grapefruit. These diets, while promoting something considered positive, weight-loss, also can lead one into serious health problems.

Focus:

I am to focus on the common misconceptions on dieting and weight-loss. I want to uncover the great risks that come with the most popular dieting methods due to the restriction of vital nutrients as well as a solutions that nutritionists actually support. In hopes of finding a solution, I also want to take a look into positive diets promoted in the media, or if there is even a diet that is generally helpful and doable for the general public.

Importance:

While many people seem to focus on the obesity epidemic in the U.S., I want to focus on more plausible dieting solutions that promote long term health and healthy weight loss. The nutrients people deprive themselves of can lead to an even more unhealthy society caused by the lack of education on healthy dieting habits. Many people look to social media to find healthy goals and role models end up greatly damaging their body and could later on effect their children and society at a whole. Students and young adults are most at risk for joining unhealthy diets given that they are on social media the most. If DU and other schools promote healthy relationships with food it would benefit their ability to perform as well as their life and longevity.

Sources:

I will research fad diets through a book called “Decoding Fad Diets” by Gail Hoddlebrink. To ensure the uprising of unhealthy practices, I am going to read into a nutritionist’s perspective of the most popular fad diets. This will also give me information about the most popular fad diets. Using more statistical and scientific research, I will look for the long-term effects of these diets and how it may effect younger and younger generations. I can find out the effects by reading an article titled “Fad Diets” from a source called A Guide to Women’s Health.

Topic 2: Dieting Culture and Eating Disorders

Introduction:

Growing up as a little sister, I always looked to my older brother for guidance and protection. To me, he was always a super star athlete, a great student and a wonderful brother. Despite all the admiration I have for him, he had his struggles. During the height of diet-culture illustrated in the media with shows such as “The Biggest Loser” and celebrities publicizing their extreme diets, I began to see a decline in my brother’s health. He used to cook 24/7 and loved to share his creations with the family, but that began to quickly taper off as he followed several fad diets that would later lead to a severe problem. As he saw popular media demoting eating for pleasure and promoting extremely restrictive eating, he also became extremely judgmental of his diet and his body. Entering his sophomore year of high school, he developed an eating disorder so powerful he had to be hospitalized several times. The media of toxic food culture tore away at the joyful brother I knew and left us struggling to find a solution to simply save his life.

Topic Proposal:

The topic I wish to uncover is how fad dieting as well as dieting culture raises young adults to be less body positive, less healthy and possibly creates eating disorders. Seeing that the media today has a very in-depth relationship to food, its impact on the youth is immense. Simply the celebrities that promote their own impossible diets invite their fans to join in on their diet that is unneeded and ill-suited for their younger audiences. There is also a huge amount of body shaming that goes on in the media that tells their audience that their best and “healthiest” self is their skinniest self. The mental and physical damage being done by fad diets to young bodies is being ignored by mainstream culture. There is also a huge amount of marketing being done by the food and diet industry that coaxes the youth into more unhealthy alternatives such as hunger suppressing shakes. By using things such as social media influencers, the youth are being encouraged every day on things like Instagram to push towards an unhealthy skinny standard.

Focus:

I want to dive in deeper to the effects of fad dieting have on one’s psyche as well as their general health. Given that the media has a large sub-concious and conscious impact on one vision of food, I want to see how large and how long the impact takes.

Importance:

In America alone, there is at least 30 million people with an eating disorder, and despite the many reasons people give, I want to talk about the influence of media’s dieting trends on those statistics. Fad diets typically shame people’s current bodies and diets thus adding to the growing number of eating disorder victims. If we can change the culture around food, we can help end the unhealthy habits that are currently being promoted in the U.S. We need to promote a healthy and loving relationship with our food rather than using fear tactics and shame.

Sources:

For my research project, I will interview more in depth those I know with eating disorders to see how their relationship with food and food/dieting culture has effected their disorder. I will also do more statistical research on the scientific databases to see the history of eating disorders have changed with the introduction of the media into the youth’s daily lives. I also will interview and research professionals in the field of psychology (Dr Kelly Jameson) to studying how shame arises from media’s coverage of food and try to read their articles as well as possibly interview them about their patients experiences. I will also read “Food, Morals and Meaning The Pleasure and Anxiety of Eating” by John Conveney do research the trauma associated with eating.