When A Diet Becomes A Disorder
I have just recently finished reading a book by Portia de Rossi called Unbearable Lightness: A Story of Loss and Gain. It has just become one of my favorite books, and I feel the need to do a book review for it because I believe people who suffer from eating disorders or so insecure about their body image should read this book, so they would understand how important their health is. For people who do not suffer from eating disorders, through Portia’s honest account of her past, you will see how someone is tormented by her weight and body image.
If you ever feel like an outsider in your life, this book is for you. If you have ever had a secret that kills you from the inside, this book is for you. If you are or have ever been obsessed and struggling with body image, this is a must-read for you.
In her book Unbearable Lightness: A Story of Loss and Gain, Portia de Rossi, an Australian actress best known for her role as lawyer Nelle Porter on the American TV series Ally McBeal and the wife of the popular talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, pours out her past turmoil, in which she struggled with anorexia and her secret of being a gay. It is a record of one’s heartbreaking past that cannot be more honest and emotional.
Portia first started her modeling career when she was 12. When the other kids were cramming themselves with books preparing for school exams, Portia were struggling to shed more and more pounds off her body. She had a rough childhood. Her father died when she was only 9. Her friends called her names because of her big legs, and ended up constantly comparing herself to other kids and had never been satisfied with her looks. When she went to a modeling agency, they told her to lie about her measurements so she would get more modeling jobs. From then on, she decided to diet in order to land more jobs, but it resulted in her irrational craze to get an impossible amount of weight of her body. “After the diet, I’d do the job, I’d binge, and then I’d have a few days to get the weight off before I did the next job.” Portia kept a daily calorie intake below 300 (women are advised to eat a minimum of 1,200 calories per day to avoid nutritional deficiencies) and wrote her weight on a wall and the numbers just kept declining, until she weighed only 82 pounds (she is 170 cm tall) when she was found collapsed on the set of a Hollywood film. “I would prefer to die than fail another diet.”
