Advertisements for diet pills, exercise equipment and memberships, shakes and foods explicitly encourage Americans to monitor their weight. However, many blame magazines and television's implicit pressures to be thin for the increasing prevalence of various body image disorders.
Images of models, who are 98 percent thinner than the average woman, bombard entertainment and advertising media. Television shows also feature thinner-than-average characters.
While models normally are 5'11 and 117 pounds
American women are on average 5'4 and 140 pounds, said Katie Brase, information and referral supervisor for the National Eating Disorders Association. According to the body mass index chart, which doctors frequently use for patients to determine if they are at a healthy weight, a person who is 5'11 and 117 pounds is underweight.
