The obsession with the Flat stomachyou know, is a aesthetic worry common to many women. Whether it is dealing with a slightly relaxed abdomen, rather than with a few extra pounds inexorably concentrated on the waistline, the belly always ends up being the object of a real fixation.
A few years ago it was also a survey conducted by AstraResearch on a sample of 1,245 women that revealed how bacon represented for many an obsession: based on the data that emerged, the In fact, 54% of the interviewees declared that they considered it the most difficult aesthetic concern to bear, followed at a great distance by the legs. Not only that, 83% of the women involved in the research stressed that the desire for a flat stomach would negatively affect psychological well-being and the quality of life.
But why does the belly seem to send us into such a crisis?
“It is not just a purely aesthetic question – explains Dr. Elena Campanini, psychologist at Humanitas Psico Medical Care – The belly has always, especially in women, a strong appeal to sexuality and intimacy. Not surprisingly, we women have begun to discover the belly not for so long compared to other parts of the body, if we think, for example, that the first bikini dates back to 1947 and caused a lot of sensation ».
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To his symbolic valuewe must then add an inescapable fact: the vision of the female body has changed over timeleading to a succession of always different aesthetic models.
«If we think of the artistic beauty standards of the past such as the one proposed by Venus de Milo rather than from that of Botticelli, the thought goes to women with that little bit of bacon that today would certainly be badly tolerated. Ideals have changed and over time we have come closer to a model of male beauty, almost androgynous. Not to mention that the obsession with the belly can also be seen as a consequence of the historical period we live infocusing on competition. Today we have one as a feminine ideal athletic beauty: the athletic body, with a flat stomach, is considered synonymous with excellent physical fitness as well as health and well-being“.
So we end up forgetting that the belly, by its nature, is also the part of the body that most changes in the different stages of a woman’s life: from the flat stomach, almost ephebic, typical of puberty, to the roundness of pregnancy and menopause where the distribution of fat changes due to hormonal changes.
Likewise we also tend to underestimate the close link between our belly and our emotions.
«In the belly there is what is now defined emotional brain – explains the psychologist – for this reason it happens that, when faced with something that makes us feel bad or makes us anxious, the abdomen swells, even in spite of the diet we are observing ».
That said, how can you get over your flat stomach obsession?
“The first thing to do is work on our claims to perfection often unreachable – suggests Dr. Campanini – We often forget them but we have to learn how to be more tolerant of ourselves and with our body that needs to change according to our needs. We should stop looking at those extra pounds critically also thinking that the little bit of fat that we often complain about has a function. In menopause, for example, a little bacon also serves to keep hormonal imbalances typical of the period at bay. In other words, fat is our body’s attempt to compensate for what is missing from the point of view of hormone production ».
The strategies for intervening today are different: from nutrition, relying on the opinion of a nutritionist, to ad hoc exercises to slim the abdomen up to anti-swelling strategies. The important thing is that the desire for a flat stomach does not become a pathological fixation.
«The obsession with the belly as with any alleged imperfection can be the indicator of a bigger problem – the psychologist clarifies – of one non-acceptance of oneself in general as well as a excessive concern for your body which is seen as an object to be dominated and transformed into what we would like it to be. This can take on very vast nuances and also induce the desire to undergo surgery which, in addition to being often self-mutilating, most of the time do not solve the problem “.
The obsession with a flat stomach: a risk for teenagers
Finally, the obsession with a flat stomach often also affects young girls, for which the desire to adhere to fashions, such as that of Belly Slot (literally, groove on the belly) that has raged in recent years, can pose a risk.
«We must first of all consider that the new generations often eat very poorly and have deleterious eating habits, often generated by family upbringing which still suffers from false beliefs and anxious attitudes. The result is that 30% of young people today have problems with overweight and obesity. It is clear that finding oneself overweight and having a flat stomach as an aesthetic reference model it can lead to behaviors that are anything but healthy if not dangerous, like random crash diets or even requests for surgery. The right path must always be that of the prevention: returning to teaching children the rules of proper nutrition and a healthy lifestyle ».
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Source: Vanity Fair
