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Our society's strong emphasis on dieting and self-image can sometimes lead to eating disorders. We know that more than 5 million Americans suffer from eating disorders, most of them young women.

Eating disorders, body dysmorphia and a general dissatisfaction with one's life and body seems to ail too many young people.

An eating disorder is serious and it's a disease, and I don't think you can lightly say that someone has a disease unless they're openly telling you that they do.

I used to refer to myself as a 'theoretical anorexic,' just as crazy when it came to body image, but saved by a lack of self-discipline. My daughters do everything better than I do - they're smarter, more beautiful, happier. What if they end up better at anorexia, too?

I have a history of eating disorders but, as a mother, you think of being an example to your child. I'm so much more balanced than I was.

The reason most people get eating disorders is because they want to be skinny, but they do it stupidly, and they stop eating completely - nobody knows anything about nutrition or exercise. I think it should be a separate subject in school.

In high school, I had a couple girlfriends who had very extreme eating disorders. Anorexia and bulimia. And in college as well. It's just heartbreaking. As someone going through it, it's heartbreaking. And as a friend who's helping a friend going through it, it's heartbreaking. It's a real, real disease.

A misperception about anorexia is that you don't eat. Not true. Maybe you eat just 500 calories a day. It would be easy for me to say, 'Why didn't my parents notice?' But I didn't want them to. I made sure to eat half a sandwich around my parents.

Poor eating habits developed at an early age lead to a lifetime of real health consequences.

I suffered from eating disorders when I was just a kid. I did not like me or the way I looked. But back then, you could not tell anyone.