WHEN HEALTH BECOMES AN OBSESSION

We’re all aware of the benefits of a balanced diet and regular exercise, and many of us strive to maintain or improve our health. For some, however, the journey towards self-improvement can end up being all-consuming and become a distressing obsession. While women have always been bombarded with media representations and social pressures dictating what the ‘perfect’ body should look like, the conversation’s shifted and been re-branded as something that, at first glance, appears to be more legitimate than simply ‘women should be thin’. But women today are under pressure to be more than thin – the focus has become living a ‘healthy lifestyle’, with trends like juicing, fasting, cleansing, detoxing and various fad diets filling their timelines. Many men, too, are now