There were no Golden Globes for "This Is Us" stars Chrissy Metz or Mandy Moore but they're winners in bigger ways. Each is battling problems at either end of the weight spectrum as Metz takes on obesity and Moore reportedly fights anorexia. Mandy Moore debuted a healthier body size after some intense weight loss, and Chrissy Metz seemed confident despite obesity. Both seem happy in their respective bodies and that's a huge step for anyone with weight issues.
'This Is Us' juxtaposes polarities
The popular show pulls a fast one, casting younger Mandy Moore, 32, as mom Rebecca Pearson to 36-year-old Chrissy Metz as daughter Kate Pearson.
Metz, who confessed to being a huge fan of the singer, was taken aback seeing her makeup-aged. NBC also contrasts two women with very different body sizes as mother and daughter. Plus-sized Metz struggles with being overweight, while Moore famously battled anorexia and shocking weight loss from the eating disorder.
Obesity/anorexia: two sides of the same coin?
They are equally and oppositely inappropriate responses to food, certainly. Binging is disordered, particularly if followed by purging or done in response to anxiety. Eating is a common response to depression, stress, fear, or even abuse. Jennifer Aniston is reportedly comfort eating and gaining weight. Patients on TLC's "My 600-lb Life" routinely report that anxiety, loneliness, parent abandonment, and trauma fuel obesity and food addiction.
Many physicians consider overeating an eating disorder, although starvation or bulimia (binge-purge disorder) are the usual ones.
'This Is Us' portrays generational implications
Is "This Is Us" suggesting that weight gain in kids is an outcome of anorexic parents or vice-versa? Maybe not, but it's food for thought. Kids of dads and moms obsessed with body size more often have body image issues.
Parenting gurus like Michelle Obama and Soleil Moon Frye recommend not weighing kids and being focused on healthy eating, not dieting. Parents should also not make negative body statements around or to kids. It communicates that some bodies are acceptable and some aren't.
Eating disorders controllable but never gone
An important distinction about eating disorders and obesity is that though you can overcome them, they never go away.
Disordered thinking drives dysfunctional eating. If she was anorexic, Mandy Moore seems to be managing it, maybe because she's healing low self-esteem underneath it. She was body confident enough to sport dazzling cleavage without breast implants or plastic surgery. Chrissy Metz promises future weight loss for the part of Kate. To accomplish that long-term, says Oprah Winfrey (who shed 42 pounds) not only food relationships, but also body image must improve.
