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Against eating disorders

11-1-10
Alexis Nyal. 11-1-10 (CC BY)

Each year, hundreds of teenagers develop eating disorders or problems with weight, eating or body image.

Eating disorders represent extremes in dietary behaviors and in the way of thinking about food. For example, the diet never ends, and every day is more restrictive. The person can not go out with friends because he thinks it is more important to go jogging to eliminate a snack he ate a while before.(1)

To combat these harmful behaviors, we will inform about them and pass on what has been learned to our classmates, in our classroom and in the other courses of the Educational Center. We will do it through comics, which will be displayed in a very visible place of the Center: in a corridor or in the lobby of the entrance, for example.

(1) TeensHealth, «Eating disorders». Online resource. [Access: may 2017]

Research

Toxic habits related to food

Harmful or toxic habits are repeated behaviors that seriously impair health. Among these harmful behaviors are several toxic habits that are related to food. And many of them can affect teenagers.

To eat or not to eat
daniellehelm. To eat or not to eat? (CC BY)

Eating Disorders: Bulimia and Anorexia

Surely more than once you've heard of Anorexia and Bulimia. Do you really know what they are? Are they serious problems? Why?

The first thing we have to do is inform us about these disorders.

Information on Eating Disorders (ED):

  • Asociación de Bulimia y Anorexia de A Coruña: link.
  • Asociación contra la Anorexia y la Bulimia de Cataluña: link.
  • «Eating disorder» on Wikipedia: link.

Warning Signs

In order to address and resolve Eating Disorders (ED), one of the key factors is to intervene in time. This requires early detection. Once an ED is detected, the affected person can be informed that he or she has a health problem, and can seek the means to solve it.

How to know if a person suffers a possible case of ED? There are changes in people that can be warning signs. Find out in the Net about some of these signs, for example, on the website of the Instituto de Transtornos Alimentarios or the web of GuiaSalud.

Debate

Do you think these types of disorders are serious? How do they affect the people of your age? Are there any more toxic eating habits that may affect the health of adolescents? Have a discussion between the team members and expose the conclusions to the other teams.

Task

comic gold
Badheartbull. Comic Gold (CC BY-SA)

You will work in teams of three or four people with the aim of developing a comic in which a girl or a boy gives advice to people in danger of suffering an ED and ideas to overcome that situation, summarizing the most important information of what you investigated and your reflections and contributions. This task can be developed in the Plastic, Visual and Audiovisual Education class.

  • Remember that these disorders can be extremely serious for the health of the people who suffer them, so you have to be very careful and sensitive when developing the scripts and images of comics.
  • The first task will be to write the script, which will develop the story in maximum detail. In the script you have to describe what is in each vignette, one by one. The script will explain in detail the images you are going to draw and will contain the definitive dialogues.
  • The story has to convey positive ideas, and hope. It has to be optimistic.
  • You will use the graphic techniques proposed by your teacher, applying them appropriately to the objective of the activity. You can also use digital tools.
  • Each comic will have a single page, drawn (or printed) in a medium or large size: the most suitable would be a DIN A3 format (297 × 420 mm).
  • Remember that comics tell stories sequentially, using multiple panels. In your comic, the number of panels will be, at least, four.

Once finished the comics, we will hang them in the walls of our classroom or in the hall of the center. We must take photos of the comics or scan them, to be able to share them on the Web through a blog, web site, social networks ...

Assessment of the task

To evaluate the task, the following rubrics will be used:

Look at them carefully before starting work and check at the end if you fulfill the requirements contained therein.

Learning Journal

Write an entry in your Journal now, talking about the experience making the comic.