Use of English Question 4 2004     

Have you ever seen any advertisements that an artist claims that she regains her confidence after taking a slimming programme on television? Lisa Wong,  Nancy Sit, ……  There are a lot of different advertisements about slimming, but they share  the same aim ­­— being thin is beautiful  and get slim now! These commercials repeat many times on the television and make me believe that I should become thinner. However, after attending a talk on ‘Health and Beauty’, I have changed my mind. In this essay, I am going to share what I have learnt from the three speakers of the talk.

        ‘To lose your weight extremely is harmful to your health,’ said a medical doctor. Many people lose their weight by reducing their intake of food. They try to be on diet to reduce their intake of calories. Some of them may even try to make themselves vomit what they have taken in after a meal. The medical doctor told us that we  take little food, to the detriment of our health. The  gastric juice is very acidic. If there is no food, it will harm our stomach wall. Besides, those people who want to lose their weight will also do a lot of exercise. How can the muscles and heart bear such a heavy workload if there is so little energy providing to them? They may also have a chance to faint in the street. Can you imagine how dangerous it is?

        A social worker told us that many people want to lose weight since they have a wrong concept that being thin is beautiful. They also have a large pressure from society and peers. It goes without saying that most people want to have a boyfriend or girlfriend with a beautiful figure. Therefore many people attempt to lose weight. But is thinness implying beauty? If a person loses so much of his/her weight, he/she will certainly become skinny. I think skinny is ugly but not beautiful. Do you want to be compared to a skeleton? The social worker also said that since there are a lot of cases that fat people are discriminated. They cannot get a job. Thus, many people want to reduce their weight since they are afraid that they may be sacked.

        The experience of an ex-patient recovering from eating disorder is very impressive. She said that she tried to lose her weight mainly because of her boyfriend. Her  boy friend always complained about her obesity. Therefore, she started to reduce her weight. She took only one meal a day which only contained an apple and a slice of bread. She also exercised three times a week. She is about 155cm tall but she was only 72 pounds at her thinnest stage! She also showed us her photo, it did scare me. Her boyfriend left her since she was so frightening. She said that she really regretted about it and would never try to lose her weight.

        All in all, I understand that all people want to be beautiful. However, we should think about what beauty is and  not to be misled by others. Obesity  is no good  but is being so thin good? You may die if you lose your weight extremely. It does not make sense to be beautiful after death. We should treasure our health. Look before you leap!