Living in a society in which many young girls strive to resemble the waif models
             that are plastered on the cover of magazines, many have suffered an on going
             battle with eating disorders. Anorexia means lack of appetite for food, although this is not
             the case with many anorexics, they are hungry, however, they learn to control their
             hunger pangs (Landau). Anorexia, a life-threatening eating disorder, is centered on self-starvation and has many detrimental side effects on the sufferer.
             Anorexia nervosa is considered the woman's disease mostly affecting girls between the ages of twelve and eighteen. Only about six percent of boys are affected. It is estimated that one-half to one percent of females in the U.S. develop anorexia and ninety percent of these cases are adolescent young women, although children as young as seven and women up into their eighties have been diagnosed (The Nation's Voice). Anorexia is not solely about self-starvation, it is about filling a need and feeling in control. It is the only way that people with anorexia can feel in control of their own lives.
             Anorexia begins as a simple diet to lose a few pounds and often losing five to ten
             pounds is not enough the anorexic becomes obsessed with food. She lives vicariously through the people who are close to her by cooking exquisite meals and encourage that they overeat. She is a perfectionist and wants the kitchen to be kept neat and organized at all times. Shannon, a twenty-eight-year-old anorexic, bakes cookies and cakes for her husband on a weekly basis, yet she never takes a bite. These young girls design their own eating rituals to stretch the mental effect of the small amount of food they allow themselves to consume. Patti, a young woman who suffered from anorexia for two years, ate nothing but two cream filled cookies a day for a seven week time period. She considered the first cookie of the day to be breakfast and lunc...