Alarming statistics

In her exceptional book,  I Thought It Was Just Me (but it isn’t), Brene Brown, Ph.D. shares some alarming statistics. As she explores the role of social-community expectations of appearance on women today, she lays out these facts like a string of firecrackers ready to explode…

  • Approximately seven million girls and women suffer from an eating disorder.
  • Up to nineteen percent of college-aged women are bulimic.
  • Eating disorders are the third most common chronic illness among females.
  • The latest surveys show very young girls are going on diets because they think they are fat and unattractive. In one American survey, 80% of ten-year-old girls had already dieted at least once.
  • A research survey found that the single largest group of high school students considering or attempting suicide are girls who feel they are overweight.
  • Among women over eighteen looking at themselves in the mirror, research indicates that at least 80% are unhappy with what they see. Many will not even be seeing an accurate reflection; up to 80% of women overestimate their size. Increasing numbers of women with no weight problems or clinical psychological disorders look at themselves in the mirror and see ugliness and fat.
  • Since 1997 there has been a 465% increase in the total number of cosmetic procedures. Women had 10.7 million procedures, 90% of the total. The top 5 were: liposuction, breast augmentation, eyelid surgery, tummy tuck, and facelift. Americans spent just under $12.5 BILLION on cosmetic procedures in 2004.

Wow.

Take  a minute to soak all of that in. Go back and read those facts again, because they are FACTS, not propaganda, not distorted truths. The FACTS say that AT LEAST 80% OF US are unhappy with how we look when we look in the mirror. It starts young, with our 10-year-olds already on diets, and it spirals out of control quickly with our college students prone to anorexia and bulimia. It continues for too long with young adults, mothers and grandmothers still experiencing the effects of body hatred, disordered eating, and relentless self-criticism.

Chances are, you haven’t been spared from these issues. Statistically speaking, you are likely to recognize yourself in one or more of the alarming facts highlighted above. I certainly do.

I’m angry about the years I’ve wasted and watched others waste diverting energy from truly important contributions we could be making to focus instead on the size of our thighs or the roundness of our bellies. I’m tired of every magazine headline on the news stand promising the secret to thinner thighs or a flatter belly or a tighter rear end. I’m frustrated by the ads flooding the internet for diet pills and miracle cleanses and gimmicky exercise equipment. I KNOW we’re smarter than all of this, but I also know that we’re incredibly tempted by it in our desperation to “fix” ourselves once and for all.

I’d like to write more about this over the upcoming weeks and months….we need to break this cycle of madness that is driving our children into this dark hole right with us, and I’ll need your help. But for today, can you do just one thing? Can you listen for that voice of self-criticism that tells you that you’re not enough…and when she speaks, politely ask her to shut up? We have important things to do, and she’s in our way.

 

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Summer Fruit Gazpacho

We’re heading south today to visit with dear friends in Nashville! I’m so excited I can hardly stand it. Do you have friends whom you wish lived next door so you could do life with them more readily? You have to hold these weekend visits in your heart all year long and call upon the memories when you miss them so much you can’t stand it anymore.

While looking forward to this weekend of memory making, I came across this chilled fruit soup recipe.  Just reading it puts me in a Southern frame of mind. It’s the kind of thing I’d like to enjoy on the front porch or back patio on a hot day. The contrasting colored purees sprinkled with diced honeydew and cantaloupe are just lovely (this cries out for clear glass bowls if you have them!).

Open a bottle of sparkling wine, put up your bare feet, and toast to friendship and healthy summer treats!

 

Summer Fruit Gazpacho

 

serves 6

 

Ingredients:

3 1/2 cups fresh raspberries, washed

20 oz. package unsweetened frozen raspberries, thawed

3 tablespoons sugar

2 cups lime-flavored sparkling water

6 fresh mint leaves, cut into thin strips

5 kiwi, peeled

3 tablespoons fresh lime juice

1 cup finely diced honeydew melon

1 cup finely diced cataloupe

 

Directions:

1. Place the raspberries and sugar in a food processor and process until smooth. Strain through a mesh strainer to remove the seeds. Transfer to a large bowl and add the sparkling water and mint. Stir to combine.

2. Place the kiwis and lime juice in the food processor and process until smooth.

3. Pour equal amounts of the raspberry puree into six small, chilled soup bowls. Then pour equal amounts of the kiwi-lime juice puree into the middle of the raspberry puree. Sprinkle the honeydew and cantaloupe over each bowl.

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Berry Picking Lessons

Who would think that an hour or two of berry picking at a local farm would be so rich with life lessons? We took a field trip to Fulton Farms in Troy, OH with my husband’s family last weekend and despite the extreme heat all 13 of us had a great afternoon. From Grandma and Grandpa to the 15-month-old twins everyone got in on the action, proving that berry picking truly can be a family affair. (That’s my almost-2-year-old in the photo!)

I remember picking strawberries as a child in Pennsylvania at Heller’s Farm – we’d be berry stained and hot but our baskets would be heaped with the sweetest fruit I’d ever tasted. This was no different.

We asked the kids on the drive to Troy how they thought strawberries grew, what the farm would look like, how many they could pick, etc. Let’s just say that making predictions is not my children’s strong suit. Luckily plucking berries off their stems is. (Well, except for Tucker who essentially managed to make strawberry puree by swirling the berries around and around in his bucket all afternoon. Sigh.)

So, post-picking lessons learned:

– It was H-O-T out there in the fields! Hats were a must and we were all a sweaty mess. Farmers work really really hard if they’re the ones picking all those berries. We picked all afternoon and had 8 buckets. When you consider the cartons and cartons of them at the grocery store you don’t think about the time spent harvesting (not to mention planting, and watering, and fertilizing).

– Locally grown and freshly picked berries taste SO MUCH BETTER than the ones in the grocery store – they are smaller and sweeter and redder all the way through to the middle. By the way this is true for pretty much any produce -thus the resurgence of farmer’s markets and backyard gardens!

– When you’re the one who picked the berries you’re a lot less likely to waste any of them. They seem more precious somehow. This is a good thing and even the kids seemed to get it.

– Locally grown berries are sweet enough to be dessert all by themselves – no requests for added sugar or Truvia on top – but they also make great jam and sorbet!

– Oddly shaped berries still taste great – it’s what’s on the inside that counts!

– The work went faster and was way more fun if we worked together – the littler the child the more she understood this! Watching them sharing berries from bucket to bucket was priceless.

If you’ve never been to “U Pick” farm I highly recommend it – what a great experience and fun memories!

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