Did She Really Get Over Her Eating Disorder?

Over the past few years, more and more celebrities are coming forward with their eating disorders. In general, the media applaud these women for their heroic efforts in conquering their demons. It is great that this causes more people to focus on the topic of eating disorder, but it has a dark side as well.

For instance, Jessica Alba revealed she had an eating disorder in the September 2001 issue of Glamour magazine. She believed her eating disorder was caused by the intense training regime she followed in 1999 to prepare for the Fox series Dark Angel.

"I got obsessed with it," Alba admits. She goes on to say, "A lot of girls have eating disorders, and I did too. I got too thin...now I'm concentrating on being normal."

Let's talk about that last word "normal". She insinuates that her eating disorder is far behind her, yet in the same article she says she won't do a nude scene because she is insecure; she is 5' 7" and a size 4; and "I bicycle, work out on an elliptical machine and walk uphill at a hard heart rate of almost 180 for an hour every day. I do some boxing and kicking, too, but since I work for 14 hours, I can't do much more."

Ummm...I'm pretty sure that you don't need to do anymore. It is clear that Alba still suffers from body image issues. And she is still very thin. She says she comes from a family of overweight people, so how is she staying so thin?

It is common for celebrities to say they had an eating disorder, which makes us think that the way they look now is healthy and normal. This is simply not the case. Just like Alcoholics, people diagnosed with eating disorders are always "in recovery". Traces of disordered eating habits and exercise routines may remain for a very long time after the first stage of their initial treatment is over. It is dangerous for celebrities to promote themselves as healthy, normal eaters and as role models for eating disorder recovery when in fact they are not.