Editor’s note: This column contains language that may be offensive to some people.Our society promotes impossible standards of beauty.Standards of beauty which are only attained through plastic surgery, PhotoShop and, most recently, Web sites encouraging eating disorders.National Eating Disorder Awareness Week begins Sunday, so there’s no better time to address this topic.Thanks to virtual eating disorder communities, anorexia and bulimia are no longer considered diseases but are lifestyles. And “Ana” and “Mia” are becoming girls’ best friends.Gone are the days when girls had to sneak off to recovery groups or rehabilitation centers. Now they can openly talk to others with similar goals and can proudly parade the bones protruding from their bodies for all the world to see.The number of Web sites promoting anorexia and bulimia has increased 470 percent in a single year, according to a 2008 study by Optenet, a global Internet trend company.These online communities instruct visitors how to lose weight — whether it be by pills, laxatives or the classic starvation and purgation. They also provide “thinspiration,” or photos of emaciated models, malnourished celebrities or obese and overweight people to keep these girls on the right track.Pro-eating disorder Web sites have been around since the advent of the Internet. However, they used to be so well-hidden it took more than just one Google search to uncover them.Upon entering “pro-eating disorder” in my Web browser, 44 pages devoted to this topic appeared.The first on the list, “The World’s Largest Pro-Anorexia Site” where users’ profile pictures range from the thinspirational, incredible shrinking women Nicole Richie and Ellen Pompeo to photos zoomed in on girl’s skeletal remains.While some comments cheerily express a girl’s pride for only consuming only 175 calories in a day and are adorned with smiley faces, others are quite dismal.”Food is everywhere. in my head and in my house and on my tv. I cant stop thinking about it and i’m going fucking insane. i can’t give in … Because once I start eating I can’t stop, and we all know that purging doesn’t do shit anyway because those fucking calories are in you as soon as the food hits your mouth,” said one visitor to “The World’s Largest Pro-Anorexia Site.”And these communities are spreading to popular social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace.”Many pro-ana Facebookers say the groups provide an invaluable support system to help them cope with their disease, but psychologists worry that the growth of such groups could encourage eating disorders in others,” read a Nov. 2008 Newsweek article.Four out of 10 teenagers with eating disorders visit pro-eating disorder Web sites, according to a 2006 Stanford University study. Of the 96 percent of young women afflicted with eating disorders who visited these Web sites, 50 percent of them learned new weight-loss techniques. Seven out of 10 visitors admitted they tried techniques discovered on these sites while one-third tested the suggested diet pills, supplements or laxatives.But Facebook isn’t standing idly by. These pro-eating disorder groups violate Facebook’s terms of use by promoting harm to oneself and others.There are designated Facebook employees who delete dangerous groups like pro-ana and pro-mia groups, company spokesperson Barry Schnitt told Newsweek.Despite Facebook’s admirable endeavors, it can only do so much.Ten million females and one million males are battling eating disorders, according to the National Eating Disorders Association.And that’s only in the U.S.So in honor of National Eating Disorder Awareness Week, girls, do yourself a favor and scarf down every last morsel of that Big Mac or Raising Cane’s chicken finger box because I promise, it won’t kill you.But throwing it up will.——Contact Drew Belle Zerby at [email protected]