The sad and growing saga of Ana and Mia

They have dark, haunting names: Plague Angel; Nothing’s Gonna Stop Me from Floating; Gloomsday; Ana’s Underground Grotto.

They come replete with tips like these on how to avoid eating or how to hide the fact you don’t eat from family or friends:

• Make yourself a snack, but instead of eating it throw it away. Leave the dirty dishes where your parents can find them. They will think you ate.

• Say you are going to eat at a friend's house and instead go for a walk. You will be burning calories instead of taking them in.

• Drink one glass of water every hour. It will make you feel full.

• Wear a rubber band around your wrist. Snap it when you want to eat.

• Clean something gross (toilet, litter box, boyfriend’s closet) when you want to eat. You will not want to eat after cleaning a litter box.

They also feature "trigger" images – "thinspirational" photos of models and actors (Kate Moss is a popular one) – some of them so disturbingly gaunt you could weep. Other images are negative triggers – photos of monstrously fat people intended to gross out viewers. Either way they’re meant to discourage you from eating by either reminding you how far from "perfection" you are, or how gross obesity is just a thin slice of cake away.

They often feature personal expressions – journals, poetry, artwork – and well-used chat rooms, message boards and guest books. They also provide links to resources and lists of so-called safe foods that contain the least number of calories – things like diet colas, egg whites, black coffee, and "negative calorie foods" like celery, that some profess will burn more calories in digestion than they actually contain.

"Pro-ana" (for "pro-anorexia") and "pro-mia" (for "pro-bulimia") sites are popping up like flies on the web, giving people with eating disorders – primarily girls and young women – variously, an outlet for venting, a focus or extension for their world view or simply a point of contact.

"It’s a means to express myself," said Sarah, who set up her own pro-ana site, in a CBC radio interview. "It’s really, really lonely (being anorexic)."

Sarah, like many other pro-ana and pro-mia website creators, professes that she doesn’t want to promote anorexia and bulimia. Many of the sites have warnings urging people with eating disorders, or ED, to leave the site immediately. But simply by virtue of the fact that they exist, the sites can’t help but foster the ED culture.

"It’s so important for parents and community leaders to know that these sites exist because they encourage the proliferation of eating disorders," says Sheila Sherkat, a qualified counsellor and facilitator with the Disordered Eating Support Group, which operates under the auspices of Whistler Community Services.

"The sites I’ve visited encourage competition for weight loss and strategies on how to lose more weight, maintain the secrecy and hide the behaviour. At the same time, they contribute to the minimalization of how serious this is – which is definitely not helpful."

As Sherkat points out, most people don’t realize how devastating eating disorders can be – they are actually life-threatening. And once you’ve been diagnosed with anorexia or bulimia, it can take years to recover.

The irony is that even though "ana" and "mia" have disappeared from media headlines and talk shows, the incidence of eating disorders is on the increase. The eating disorder clinic at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver reports that younger and younger children, primarily girls, are suffering from disordered eating. And although it’s tough to pin down if it’s because they are talking about it more openly, or if it’s really a new trend, more and more men are coming forward with eating disorders – ergo the images of men on pro-ana/mia websites.

Another hot topic on these sites is exercise – tips on doing it to burn calories, doing it to avoid eating, and journal entries on feeling guilty from not doing it abound.

One worldwide report indicates that, overall, eating disorders continue to be on the rise amongst all athletes. Sports such as gymnastics, figure skating, dancing and synchronized swimming have a higher percentage of athletes with eating disorders than those such as basketball, skiing and volleyball. One graphic example of the forces driving the phenomenon: In 1976 the average gymnast was 5' 3" and weighed 105 lb; in 1992 the average gymnast was 4' 9" and weighed 88 lb.

While exercising can be a good thing, it can go too far at Whistler, says Sherkat, where the cultural bar is set pretty high when to comes to things like fitness, competitive sports and acceptable body standards, both in and out of the competition circle.

"You see a lot of people over-exercising and not eating much – that’s a compulsive attitude with some athletes around town. At the gym you can see people over-training," she says.

"Over-exercising is a form of purging, in a way. If your caloric intake is below your expenditure then that will result in weigh loss. It’s all linked to the reason why – if you’re dissatisfied with your body image and you’re doing it specifically for the purpose of losing weight and gaining some ideal body shape, and if it becomes an obsession, then it’s not a healthy thing."