One in five young men unhappy with their bodies

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Today's modern man hates his body and is increasingly susceptible to an eating disorder.
 
According to Dr John Morgan from the Yorkshire Centre for Eating Disorders in Leeds says he has seen a huge rise in the number of men suffering from eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia, but for every man admitted to his care, there are ten more who are depressed by the figure which stares back at them from the mirror.
 
'We know that 1 in 20 young people suffer from some degree of disordered eating and that at least 15% of them are men and yet that's a tip of an iceberg,' he told the BBC.
 
'There are men who have problems with compulsive exercise and excessive bodybuilding who have an illness, but we haven't defined them. Our definitions of illness have been focused on women, rather than men.'
 
As health professionals worry about increasingly susceptible young women, young men are being overlooked, but Morgan says they can be influenced just as strongly by 'perfect' body images projected at them from all angles, and in many ways it is more difficult for them to achieve the six-pack, muscle-bound arms and small waist that's seen as today's ideal.
 
'It's completely unhealthy, and to achieve that sort of shape you've got to be either working out for hours in a gym, making yourself sick, or taking certain kinds of illegal drugs,' he says.
 
Manorexia will appear on BBC2 on Saturday 13 September, at 13.45pm

Monday 15 September 2008

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