It is estimated that 1.1 million people in the UK suffer from eating disorders. The numbers are higher in the USA. The majority are females aged between 12 and 24 years, although women of any age can develop a problem. The media is a wonderful communication and effective marketing tool but perhaps the same media that allows us to feel closer to one another is also a master manipulator of its captive audience.

We are bombarded with images of what we should eat, how we should dress and what we should look like and even when we should act on impulses planted in our heads. No longer do we  have to turn on the television or radio to get our ‘fix’, we are fed a steady diet via our social networks, our emails and now our mobile phones. It is no wonder that our youth are confused.

Celebrities are photographed as much for their talent as for their weight. Even those in the ‘healthy’ weight range are air brushed and photo shopped to ‘perfection’. The trend setters become the victims of their own industry.

These  powerful influences serve to fuel a sense of personal and almost infectious collective body dissatisfaction amongst young girls and women in particular,  and have contributed to the rise in the use of eating disorder behaviours such as obsessive dieting, calorie counting, over-exercising, self-induced vomiting, diet pill and laxative abuse.

Parents have a much greater responsibility these days to protect their children from the attacks on self esteem. Who do you think is to blame and what are your views?