Get the recipe dancer if you can and put it in the recipe section. I LOVE salmon...

I'll try, Chatty.
Dancer

From my understanding one of the things that sets these girls up for it is an extremely controlling environment. They figure if they can't control things going on around them the one thing they have total control over is there eating. Of course, they may not be aware of this reasoning, it may be all subconcious. It is a very serious and often fatal disease.

You are spot-on, greene!
Dancer

I just want to thank you for your answer Dancer and Meredith too; Interesting observations.

Our neighbours have twin adult daughters. Both are beautiful young ladies, except that they are so skinny their collar bones look like they swallowed boomerangs. Their parents are kind gentle people. Both daughters have doctor degrees. They work our every day for hours. I’ve been invited to their homes, which appear not only modern but sterile. Everything is black and white, lots of steal, chrome, and leather. A single white orchid in a black vase is just about the only knick-knack in their spacious homes. They eat like sparrows. Both have two children, but you won’t see any food lying around; Never mind a crumb on a kitchen counter.

You could blow me over with a feather if these girls don’t willfully starve themselves. Isn’t it weird that both of them are like that? Makes me wonder if Anorexia can be a genetic ailment.

Edelweiss, I'd say NO because there's no anorexia or related eating disorders in 3rd-world countries where food is scarce, or in societies where full-figured women are the ideal.

However, being twins they were raised in the same environment, and (especially if they're identical) may have a similar response.

Genetic? That's something I never considered. I wonder if that has been studied. My opinion is much the same as Meredith's. I form my thoughts based on personal experience as well as facilitating workshops/therapy sessions for adult survivors of child abuse. I recall studying Psych 101 in first semesster college 1973. The picture of anorexia nervosa was ONE black and white picture of a male, and ONE paragraph. I weighed 98 pounds at the time, at 5'5. My cousin (my best childhood friend) and I did indeed compete in terms of weight. If she got to 104, I tried to get under 100. I just had no appetite, or so I thought. She was willful, as EW observes, willfully starving herself. We had 1) same famly dynamics 2) patriarchal dogmas 3) subservience 4) forced obedience. As Greene says, in my cousin's case, it was a matter of the only control she had over her own choices and activities. A couple years later, I silently smirked when she went to 133, and I was a mere 110. I weighed less than her, and it was a victory. How twisted is that? As Dotsie says, eating disorders are not only more talked about, but they are also actually, factually more prevalent. It's odd that there is more help available, yet the disease is so pervasive. When I was 22 I was hospitalized for "unexplained weight loss." I had an IV. I actually asked how many calories the IV drip had. Really, the doctors had no idea what they were dealing with. When my cousin was hospitalized for the same reason (underweight, no thought process, no energy, no proper bodily functions, just coffee and cigarettes) the general DX for her was "nervous condition." Fast forward 30 years to social work profession: there wasn't a one group member who did not or had not had some form of destructive relationship with food. Tonight I saw a segment on the soap opera star Lisa Rena and her husband Harry Hamlin. Lisa is 45. The focus of the article was on how great she looked in her bikini. And the segment producer compared photos of her in bikinis "over the decades." Wow, how very important the media makes women's size. Of course, Harry's size was not discussed. I have a neice who has been a dancer since she could walk. Her major in college was theater and dance. She played "Karen" in "The Red Shoes" for community theater. Triple threat: voice, dance, acting. Anyway, she auditioned for a cruise line dance troupe, and did not make it. My step-father, who told me I should strive for a body like Cheryl Tiegs (in the 70s) said about his step-granddaughter, "I bet she did not make the cruise due to the way she bulked up. Have you noticed how much weight she's gained? I hope she doesn't get huge like her mother." Wow. What messages. What judgement. The family dynamics is a HUGE part of the pervasive problem. I think that anorexia turned from one page in a text book to a disease worth exploring with the death of Karen Carpenter. Not a solution in sight. I wonder what the long term life recovery rate is? I hope it's higher than I think it is. Just my 2 cents worth.

I know that in some areas anorexia is treated very much like alcoholism. There is even a book on the market about overcoming eating disorders using the 12 steps. It is part workbook where one can write out the steps as they go thru them. The thought being that they are as 'powerless' over the eating disorder as an alcoholic is over alcohol.

Perhaps it isn't strictly genetic but what is genetic is ones sensitivity to the environment and therefore the behavioral reaction to it?