Hi ladies... I'll throw in my .08 cents.
I honestly feel that the eating disorder that plagues black women most frequently is overeating. As most of you know, eating is deeply ingrained in our culture as Americans, but particularly as black Americans. While eating is an important focus of all social creatures, black Americans were historically forced to prepare high carb, fat laden recipes due to the scraps they were given to survive off of. While those extra calories were easily burned up by toiling the fields back then, we are still eating those same things while we lead sedentary lifestyles, for the most part.
Couple that history with present day poverty and poor eating habits, and you have a formula for obesity. Many impoverished families believe that cheap/filling food is the best food. Then you add a dose of depression (which many black people STILL believe doesn't exist although it affects many of them), a little low self-esteem/false sense of high self-esteem and that's all she wrote. By a false sense of high self-esteem I mean those of us who will argue that we are happy with our bodies, not matter how unhealthy they are, until we are blue in the face!
As a sistah with a voluptuous physique (5'8", 155-160), I have learned the art of balance. I was one of the "dots" throughout school, so I know how it is to be oggled because of my thick thighs, round hips, full breasts.... But I love my curves. I will never be, nor would I care to be, a waif. But I also know that, as a black woman, I am already at risk for obesity, heart disease, diabetes and stroke. That means I have to stay healthy. However, black women shouldn't even try to obsess over the differences in our bodies and the bodies on the covers of Vanity Fair. It's not real. Keep health first, find that inner peace, and that external glow will follow. Promise.
In all things, balance is the key.
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