Editor, Daily Nexus:

It’s that time again – Eating Disorders Awareness Week. This week, the issue of eating disorders will be highlighted in the hopes that the community can learn more about how eating disorders affect them, and how they, in turn, can affect eating disorders.

In this letter, I would like to focus on something that most people don’t talk too much about: eating disorders and men. Eating disorders affect men just as much as they affect women. Many men and women are obsessed with looking good these days, and some people will do whatever it takes to have the perfect body. So, maybe a man skips a meal and has a PowerBar instead; perhaps he wants to get rid of "excess" fat, so he throws up after a meal or tries not to eat at all. Then it leads to a vicious cycle. Someone decides not to eat for a while, then all he can think about is food and eats more than he can in one sitting, only to throw it all up.

There are others out there, not just those obsessed with fitness. I’ve heard people say how they sacrifice eating because they have too many classes or had to work late. I remember one person bragging about how he only ate three times in one week because he had so much work to do.

These scenarios can be attributed to both men and women. But in reality, women are reported to have more cases of eating disorders than men. This affects men too. It could be a mother, daughter or girlfriend who has anorexia, and it is important to not be critical of how someone looks, especially when they don’t look like the latest cover girl on Maxim. There is a lot of information on what can be done to deal with eating disorders, whether you have one or you know someone who does, and it can be found at Student Health Service.
ISAAC KO