Eating Disorders: A cultural disaster

An eating disorder is a condition where people have abnormal eating habits that may involve insufficient or excessive food intake. I believe that this is an important idea because it has become so widely spread. According to the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA), over 8 million people in the U.S. have an eating disorder. Of these 8 million, 7 million are women, and 1 million are men. This is a very important issue because eating disorders have many dangers including malnutrition, dehydration, and chemical imbalances in the body. These dangers can often lead to extreme sickness and eventually death. Many people ask why eating disorders occur, considering they are neither genetic nor contagious. The most common belief for why eating disorders occur are culturally imposed images of what "we should look like." When someone sees the great looking people on television and in movies, the need to be exactly like them can be overwhelming. While it is natural for humans to feel like they need to look like these "perfect" people, is there a way to prevent a person from developing an eating disorder? Can someone be given a drug or another sort of pro-active approach so that these disorders don't occur? Or is the only real option counseling once the disorder has already taken over? I feel like if a program can develop such a product or system, it would be highly beneficial for society. More money needs to be invested in this cause, because it is affecting the lives of millions of families nationwide.