Bimbos and chocolate

Personally, if my daughter's going to have an eating disorder, I would rather she inflicted it on her avatar and not her actual self. Question is: does Miss Bimbo encourage this sort of behaviour, or is it simple a crude market response to it? I stopped eating properly for a while when I was in my early teens, and let me tell you it had nothing to do with wanting to fit into a mini skirt and everything to do with being deeply unhappy. I don't believe I was anorexic, but I probably would have been diagnosed as such today. Young girls go through stuff, lots of it. All we can do as mums is keep a weather eye on them and try to tread a fine line between being supporting and interfering.

More importantly, what is everyone doing with the enormous, revolting chocolate glut left over from this weekend? I can't bring myself to throw it out, but we can't possibly eat it. Any good chocolate recipes out there?

Comments

[Nikki]

There is so much more to aneroxia and it is so important for mums to be really aware of the signs. We have had a very honest account of a mothers journey with Anexoria on our website that you might be interested in reading. http://www.mumsclick.com/index/details/anorexia__a_mothers_personal_journey

[Nikki]

There is so much more to aneroxia and it is so important for mums to be really aware of the signs. We have had a very honest account of a mothers journey with Anexoria on our website that you might be interested in reading. http://www.mumsclick.com/index/details/anorexia__a_mothers_personal_journey

[j]

Mine fell on theirs all right but probably cos I got green and black eggs which are normally adult only chocolate...

[Jane]

Yes, I think Easter eggs are simply much less of a treat than they used to be. I can remember the bliss of being, for the only time in the year, allowed to scoff the entire damn thing on Easter Sunday!

To my mind, the rot set in when they started selling Cadbury's Creme eggs all the year round!

[mumoftwo]

J, you make me feel better, I was starting to worry that my already wobbly Alphamummy status was finished off by being such a scoffer...

It was interesting to see how dis-interested my children were in their chocolate. At that age, me and my brother would fall on our eggs salivating and take great pains to make them last over a whole day (yes, day). I wonder if it is because I had such a restricted (wholefood, no sugar) diet whereas my children can have sweets/chocolate pretty much when they want, as long as they eat their main meals.

[j]

er, what leftover glut?

It's all gone in this house :)

and yes I do have a chocolate headache. serves me right.

[Rachel]

perhaps the story lines of those films were picked up from isolated but serious cases (of which even statistically there must be some, particularly in eastern-block countries). after all, it wouldn't make such a good made-for-tv film if the heroine didn't have to overcome some kind of adversity.

[Catherine]

We've got a load of recipes for using up chocolate eggs over at Raisingkids. Hope it's OK to post our url here http://www.raisingkids.co.uk/food/chef_recipe3.asp

[Gipsy]

Rachel - my information mostly comes from those US made-for-tv movies, where the parents of the girl who's a gymnastic star/ballet dancer picked for the top ballet school/company are horrified to find that their daughter is actually on the verge of death due to also having an eating disorder brought on by the pressures of doing the gymnastics/ballet (or in the case of one movie about a bulimic boy, wrestling). Perhaps they're not quite scientific resources...

[supermother]

My brother who has done a lot of research on eating disorders (his book on the subject just came out) found lots of evidence from times like the 1500s and 1600s of people with them. It seems in part of people rather than something just invented in 2008.

As for chocolate I don't eat it but there's a lot of in the house. I suppose the children will just gradually work their way through it.

Sport - yes I've been pleased most of my children are quite sporty. Although do be aware that the same addictive personalities that binge eat on chocolate or are addicted to alcohol will often substitute obssessive sport and the beta endorphins they get from that for their previous addictions so even that needs to be watched with some care.

[Rachel]

I did both ballet and gymnastics all the way through childhood, giving up gymnstics at 18 and ballet at 20 (although I have recently started gymnastics again)

I never suffered from an eating disorder; I never worried about body shape (although occasionally body hair) and ate pretty much what I liked as doing that much exercise I was always hungry.

I suspect that those girls who might suffer from eating disorders will suffer from them regardless. They certainly wouldn't be able to carry on a decent level of gymnastics if they weren't eating.

[Jane]

Ballet seems to be another one, as I believe many dancers are amennorheic (sp?!). However, I would say that, thin though gymnasts and ballet dancers are, they must, by definition have a great deal of body strength, and are therefore 'fitter' than someone that thin who does no such intense exercise.

But I agree that there is probably an 'unhealthy' attitude to food with both those forms of exercise, gymnastics and ballet.

[Gipsy]

>>Its worth trying getting girls interested in sport to avoid eating disorders.<<

apart then for those sports for which there seems to be a high level of associated eating disorders such as gymnastics?

[Jane]

E- I agree absolutely. I do find it intensely irritating that the focus of attention is always on weight and thinness, not on fitness. fit people aren't fat, nor are they thin - they are fit. Yes, we can have different body shapes, and if you are a fast-muscle-building endomorph you are never going to be a long-boned ectomorph, but all body types can be fit for their type, and that requires exercise appropriate to that body type.

Our sedentary, highly inactive lifestyles are a key contributor to the 'eating disorder phenomenon', and I do not think you can tackle the latter without tackling the former.

[E, Paris]

Its worth trying getting girls interested in sport to avoid eating disorders. That way, they're so hungry they eat but as they exercise they get a good body shape so don't get complexes about it (and sport makes you feel good). I did 6-10 hours training per week in the pool from age 8 to 16 plus competitions at the weekend. I never worried about my weight or body shape and neither did any of my friends who did sport. I had one friend who would "starve" herself all day then binge eat in the evening because she was so hungry - she'd often have a go at me cos I could "eat anything", never realising that my ten hours in the pool made all the difference.

[Gipsy]

Used to stick uneaten easter eggs in the freezer. Neither step child liked chocolate that much so often they'd still be there the following year.

I can remember sitting in our sixth form room at lunch time, having a worried discussion about one girl in our class who we thought might have an eating disorder and what we should do about it - as we sat their eating our 'lunches' of an apple, or half a nut bar (mine), or a rice cake. I was convinced I was fat - at 8 stone. Yikes.

[mumoftwo]

And when I say 'we', I mean me and my husband, the children weren't interested in it at all, how weird is that?!

[mumoftwo]

I can't believe you are having this problem, we've consumed all ours already :(

[Jo]

Chocolate rice crispies. That's what the post-anorexic girls were eating in my house.

Must check out the Bimbo site. I wasn't going to, but it sounds as if it will be around for a little while at least.

[Jane]

Freeze it. Frozen chocolate actually tastes totally yummy,and takes beautiful ages to melt in the mouth from frozen. Gorgeous stuff.

[Baggofbones]

Can't you just ration it over the next six months?