“As a teen, I was both anorexic and bulimic. I was a young woman in the public eye, on the receiving end of a lot of attention, and I was trying to protect myself from men who were using their power in ways I was too young to know how to handle ... Disappointment, sadness and pain hit me hard, and I tried to numb those feelings through my relationship with food. For four to six months at a time, I would barely eat. I lived on a diet of Melba toast, carrots, and black coffee. I began recovering at 18, when a sweet friend confronted me ... I hope my effort shows any woman battling an eating disorder or poor body image that she’s not alone—support is out there.”

—Alanis Morissette on her eating disorder battle and how she began to view eating as a “spiritual practice” in Health magazine [CNN]

Kate Moss recently told WWD that one of her mantras in life that has helped her achieve success is “nothing tastes as good as thin feels.” A totally weird and disturbing quote on its own, I’m slightly surprised the fashion daily (and the Huffington Post, which picked up the story) didn’t know or point out that the saying is also a motto expunged by pro-anorexia groups on the internet. Seriously, look here, here, and here. Considering Kate’s image has long served as “thinspiration” for girls suffering from eating disorders, it’s disturbing to hear her validating the mantra, especially since I can’t see how anyone actually could find it to be inspiring in a healthy way. And guess what? Plenty of things taste better than feeling thin. Like the burrito I am stuffing in my pie hole right now. [Huffington Post]

You believed French women looked gorgeous naturally, didn’t you? Quel suprise! Airbrushing is causing unrealistic body images and encouraging eating disorders, said a French politician on Monday as she proposed warning labels on digitally enhanced images.  Parlimentarian Valerie Boyer and 50 other French politicians want a “health warning” on airbrushed pics. All enhanced photos would be accompanied by this line: “Photograph retouched to modify the physical appearance of a person.” Under the proposal in France, a company that didn’t include the warning on their retouched ads would be slapped with a trés mal fine of a $54,930, or up to 50 percent the cost of the advertisement. The French proposal comes on the heels of a suggestion by British pols for warning labels of their own. But what we want to know is how long until such a proposal comes to the States, where we just love our Photoshop? (And can you imagine what Anna Wintour would have to say about it?) [Yahoo]

Julia Allison, former dating columnist, occasional “It’s On With Alexa Chung” guest, and subject of snark from yours truly, is issuing herself a fitness challenge! The challenge: to lose 10 pounds in 30 days. She’ll be documenting the whole process on her “lifecast” so that the accountability she feels towards her readers will guilt-trip her into accomplishing her goal. To kick-start it, she did the Presidential Fitness Assessment at Equinox and posted her measurements on her blog. [“I’m 5’4” 1/2, 137 pounds, with a bust of 33, waist of 26 1/2 and hips of 36, butt of 40, and a BMI of 23.8 percent.”] She got the following email from a reader as a result:

“I don’t think it’s smart to post your measurements (including weight) on your lifecast. It could be insensitive to those struggling with these issues.  Although you may not mean it, it can come across as though those numbers are important markers of being ‘pretty’, ‘successful’ etc. — you catch my drift!  I see that you have struggled with bulimia; so, there could be many others too. Well, there are.  Just a thought!”

The Daily Mail reported on one woman’s harsh words for her former gym and asks: Why the hell did they let her join and work out when she was so clearly and severely anorexic? (As in skin-and-bones bad.) To the gym’s credit, it soon asked Jessica Bennington, 19, to produce a doctor’s note clearly stating she was healthy enough to work out. Turns out, just days later, she was admitted to the hospital for malnourishment and a host of other complications. Gotta say…

Eating disorders aren’t just a teenage thing—they can happen at any age. Over the past decade, the number of women over age 30 who suffer from eating disorders has increased significantly. And peeps at the Eating Disorders Program in North Carolina have seen a 400 percent increase in patients 40-and-older since the 1990s. So what’s going on?

About two years ago, I went through a holistic kick in which I got really into yoga (these days I go to yoga, like, once a week), meditation, and eating copious amounts of brown rice and drinking smoothies. I picked up Skinny Bitch by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin and forced myself to read it in its entirety. Skinny Bitch‘s message confused me. It was hardcore veganism swathed in vain wrapping, a dangerous combination which can give people with body image issues the perfect “morality” excuse for having and hiding an eating disorder. The Skinny Bitch diet doesn’t consist of much—no meat, no dairy, no sugar, no caffeine, no alcohol. It angered me that the message was being targeted at women—and that the authors felt like the only way to get their pro-vegan message across was to tempt them with promises of beautiful skinniness.

Now, the bitches are back, and they’re going after men. Freedman and Barnouin’s latest book is Skinny Bastard, and it repurposes all their Skinny Bitch advice for “real men who want to stop being fat and get buff.” Honestly, if I saw Skinny Bastard sitting on a dude’s bookshelf, I would hightail it out of his apartment before he could even suggest going to a raw food restaurant for dinner and doing wheatgrass shots. [NY Times]

Too lazy to go to the bathroom and weight yourself? Soon you may be able to do both at the same time! Designer Haikun Deng designed this toilet seat with a built-in digital scale, so, basically, you’ll be able to see how much weight you lose each time you relieve yourself. It’s only a concept at this point, because, well, it would be kind of gross to be able to see how much your waste weighs, but it could be very useful for lazy people who are trying to watch what they eat. However, the seat/scale might be a little too useful for people with eating disorders—completely thwarting the “Bulemia is curable” toilet seat ad campaign. [Gizmodo]

Adfreak Copyranter points to this anti-bulimia ad campaign in Europe that employs toilet lid stickers to stop girls from purging themselves. In Düsseldorf, Germany, ad firm red cell created the hot pink and blood splatter stickers posted on toilets in local college women’s bathrooms and bars. They read “Bulimie ist heilbar,” or “Bulimia is curable,” and include contact information for the ProMädchen, or “ProGirl,” organization. Copyranter muses: “I’m thinking these lovely labels may have actually put an until-then dormant purge urge in some of the young ladies’ minds.” The F-Word opines: “I think this is a clever and effective way to specifically target those who need help the most.” What do you think? Do toilet lid stickers help fight eating disorders, or does this campaign give young woman an incentive to puke? [ANIMAL]

Some people are addicted to heroin. Others have a constant craving for sex. My vice? A&E’s “Intervention.” I watched the episode about Allison, who huffed computer duster, like, 10 times (“It’s like I’m walking on sunshine!” she crowed while sucking on the stuff). But last night’s episode redefined “out of your mind.” Nicole has an eating disorder, but she’s not your garden variety bulimic or anorexic. She “eats” only by feeding tube, which pumps liquid food into her stomach. She hasn’t swallowed in 14 years.

Really MTV? Now, I know I can hardly knock ya too much—after all, The Hills is my vice—but when I read about an upcoming show called Model Makers, I knew maybe my favorite craptastic network had gone too far. Billed as a “Transformation Make-Over” reality show, Model Makers advertised for contestants with the following ad:

Have you always wanted to model but don’t know where to start? Maybe you don’t know the right people. Maybe you are not thin enough. Maybe you are not photogenic.  MODEL MAKERS will give you the ultimate make-over and transform you into the model of your dreams. Women come in all shapes and sizes, but models don’t. The term model conjures an image of stick-thin, towering beauties oozing confidence, glamour, poise and sexuality from every pore. ‘Skinny,’ ‘no body fat,’ and ‘size zero’ are the words and phrases associated with models. ‘Chubby,’ ‘well-fed,’ and ‘big-boned’ are not…

When my mom started trying to lose weight just so she could be skinnier than me, I tried to support her sadistic desire. Okay, maybe her personal trainer wasn’t a personal attack at my waistline, but I thought once you hit a certain age, you just looked forward to getting fat—I already feel like I’m there. Anyway, when my mom, who I shared a size with, started trying giving me her “fat clothes” because she got so thin, I knew she was sick, but I didn’t realize she was part of a growing epidemic known as Desperate Housewives Syndrome, named for the popular television show that stars skinny minis like Teri Hatcher. With their role model-types looking “fit” over 40, more middle-aged women are feeling pressure to lose their extra rolls.

Drinking on an empty stomach is a good way to get the maximum buzz for your bucks, but it’s not exactly an effective way to calorie count. A new diet fad known as drunkorexia, where women choose to spend their calories on alcohol rather than food, is sweeping the U.K. and America. With beverages like a glass of wine weighing in with the same amount of calories as a light lunch, some ladies are choosing to be light-headed over a Pinot Noir than just a small salad. Professor Jane Treasure, chief of the eating disorder unit at the Institute of Psychiatry in London, says this phenomenon is especially dangerous for women’s health because it’s “…the combination of empty calories with no nutritional value and the risky behavior that goes with being drunk.” So, what do the docs recommend if you want to party responsibly? Eat well-balanced meals and drink low-cal alcoholic beverages, like a vodka and soda.  Plus, while you’re downing drinks, you can burn off a few extra calories by getting down on the dance floor. Hey, Macarena! Aye! [Telegraph U.K.]