There are many syndromes that appear within a culture and its lifetime, some more prevalent than others. Since food is one of the necessities required to sustain our human life, one of the biggest “culture-bound” syndromes that the western part of the world is prone to is eating disorders, specifically anorexia nervosa. Anorexia itself is a medical condition, in which a person is underweight due to medical reasoning, but anorexia nervosa is a condition in which an individual is obsessed with an image of becoming thinner and thinner. With our era molding itself into the digital and technologically advanced society it has been developing for several decades, food insecurities have become much vaster, especially within women. This does not only
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“Recent studies suggest that eating disorders are on the rise in Mexico” (Lester 371:2007) This statement goes to show that the rising rate of eating disorders in Mexico can be related to the fact that some people are being taught that these syndromes are real, which is what the U.S. culture believes. Proof is shown because of the Rebecca J. Lester, an anthropologist whom conducted a study about anorexia abroad in Mexico at a Mexican eating disorder clinic, who had stated “Mexico is one of the largest consumers of U.S” (Lester 372:2007). So, with the modernization and acculturation of Mexico, we can safely say that these recent cases of anorexia nervosa “might reasonably be viewed, then, as resulting from these changes” (Lester 372:2007). Some may argue that calling anorexia nervosa a culture-bound syndrome is “problematic for making claims about the cultural causes of eating disorders” (Lester 372:2007), however there is a “possible association between certain social and cultural factors and the diagnosis of eating disorders as distinct clusters of troubling thoughts, behaviors, and emotions” (Lester 373:2007). Lester had also met a young anorexic women while at her stay in Mexico. This woman had not come by on her own will, but rather through an intervention, as she would refuse to eat, or even take more than three sips of water a day. This woman was hooked up to oxygen tanks due to her heart stopping twice, she had also refused being weighed upon admission to the clinic. Within the course of five years the Mexican clinic that Lester had attended, it has “treated over 200 women like Lucy and is usually filled to capacity and often has a waiting list.” (Lester 370:2007). While Lester was living in Mexico in 1994 and 1995 she was “conducting her dissertation research, and eating disorders were nowhere on the national radar”
“Recent studies suggest that eating disorders are on the rise in Mexico” (Lester 371:2007) This statement goes to show that the rising rate of eating disorders in Mexico can be related to the fact that some people are being taught that these syndromes are real, which is what the U.S. culture believes. Proof is shown because of the Rebecca J. Lester, an anthropologist whom conducted a study about anorexia abroad in Mexico at a Mexican eating disorder clinic, who had stated “Mexico is one of the largest consumers of U.S” (Lester 372:2007). So, with the modernization and acculturation of Mexico, we can safely say that these recent cases of anorexia nervosa “might reasonably be viewed, then, as resulting from these changes” (Lester 372:2007). Some may argue that calling anorexia nervosa a culture-bound syndrome is “problematic for making claims about the cultural causes of eating disorders” (Lester 372:2007), however there is a “possible association between certain social and cultural factors and the diagnosis of eating disorders as distinct clusters of troubling thoughts, behaviors, and emotions” (Lester 373:2007). Lester had also met a young anorexic women while at her stay in Mexico. This woman had not come by on her own will, but rather through an intervention, as she would refuse to eat, or even take more than three sips of water a day. This woman was hooked up to oxygen tanks due to her heart stopping twice, she had also refused being weighed upon admission to the clinic. Within the course of five years the Mexican clinic that Lester had attended, it has “treated over 200 women like Lucy and is usually filled to capacity and often has a waiting list.” (Lester 370:2007). While Lester was living in Mexico in 1994 and 1995 she was “conducting her dissertation research, and eating disorders were nowhere on the national radar”