An important causal part of eating disorders may be societal and cultural. In developed countries the culturally ideal female body is thin, and the culturally ideal male body is tall and muscular. One with an ideal physique is not necessarily healthy, of course, and striving to make one's physique ideal and to keep it ideal is not healthful for everyone. Yet a physique that conforms to a society's ideal brings opportunities within that society to those who possess it-while those whose physiques are dissimilar to the ideal may, in that society, be objects of ridicule and adverse categorical treatment. Furthermore, the media tend to portray dieting to lose weight or body fat as de rigueur.
Many dietary plans promoted in trade books are wacky.
Some can exacerbate health problems they purportedly were designed to correct. Others are parts of belief systems that have not been scientifically studied for their health effects on participants. Individualized dietary plans can be useful, even indispensable, to persons with eating disorders. Eating according to scientifically established dietary guidelines and according to one's essential-nutrient needs is virtually always important. Also important is recognizing that physique ideals vary from culture to culture, that they change within cultures, and that, ultimately, beauty is in the eye or heart of the perceiver.