Author Marilyn Wann says life is too short to worry about your body image. The self-described fat activist and author of Fat?So! spoke at the University of Utah on Thursday as part of "Love Your Body Week: Health at Every Size."

"As a fat person, I experience different kinds of discrimination in the world," Wann said. "Thin people, I think they waste time and energy worrying about the number on the bathroom scale. We should celebrate all the sizes that people come in."

Wann, who has never had an eating disorder, emphasizes good nutrition and regular exercise.

Love Your Body Week was a collaboration between the U., Salt Lake Community College and Westminster College. A range of activities provided education and information about treatment options for people with anorexia and bulimia.

National Eating Disorders Aware- ness Week is this week. Up to 10 million girls and women and 1 million boys and men in the United States deal with eating disorders, such as anorexia or bulimia, according to the National Eating Disorders Association. Eating disorders typically affect people in their teens and 20s, but studies have shown disorders in children as young as 6 and individuals as old as 76.

Wann spends time talking to high school and college students about anorexia and bulimia nervosa. She worked to pass an antidiscrimination ordinance regarding height and weight in San Francisco.

At 5 feet 6 inches tall and 270 pounds, she takes pride in her weight and regularly swims, dances, lifts weights, takes vigorous walks and does aerobics.

"I do use the 'F word' - fat, and I self-identify with that," she said. "I think we live in a fat fearing and hating culture."

She also disagrees with the way the government defines overweight or obese based on body mass index.

"It doesn't account for body composition, and I don't find it very meaningful," she said. "Some fat people who are fit live longer than thin people who are sedentary."

Wann, who says her blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar are within healthy levels, believes doctors are biased against overweight people and that medical assumptions are based on stereotypes. The result: patients often starve themselves, take dangerous diet drugs or undergo risky surgery.

"I want to erase the line between fat being good or bad," Wann said. "I want us to be our own best self."

Students at the U. agreed that people spend way too much time focusing on their weight. Christy Pearce, a senior from Provo, starved herself much of the time as a teenager.

"I weighed 107 pounds and my mom thought I was heavy," Pearce said. "Now I try to eat healthy and exercise more for health reasons than body image."

---

Carey Hamilton can be reached at chamilton@sltrib.com or by calling 801-257-8605. To comment on this story, write livingeditor@sltrib.com.

Seven steps to preventing eating disorders

Frances Berg is the author of Underage and Overweight, a book that offers the following seven-point plan for raising healthy-weight children.

1. Normalize activity. Plan a goal of 30 minutes of moderate activity a day for preteens, teens and adults, and at least one hour for younger children. At home, try to break to up long stretches of inactivity with short walks.

2. Normalize eating. Have at least three meals a day and one or two snacks. Stop all dieting and food restriction.

3. Balance nutrition. Eat at least the recommended amounts from all food groups in the Food Guide Pyramid.

4. Feel good about yourself. Body image is a major factor in eating disorders. Your child will learn to reflect the way you feel about your own body and weight.

5. Communicate feelings. Promote communication from an early age, which can help you identify an eating disorder.

6. Feel good about others. Promote acceptance, respect and tolerance of diversity and set a good example.

7. Balance the dimensions of wellness. Weight and eating are only part of wellness and need to be kept in perspective.