Byline: Jennifer Harper, THE WASHINGTON TIMES

It's not just the epic struggle with calories and the waistline.

Anxious, angry and melancholy, 75 percent of American women admit to "disordered eating" owing to a fear of fatness, distorted self-image and unrealistic expectations about dieting, according to research released yesterday by the University of North Carolina's School of Medicine.

Food has become a complicated issue for women. What they eat - or don't eat - is often equated with happiness. Some diet even though they are at a healthy weight. Skipping meals, smoking to stay slim and extreme attention to calorie counting is common.

That little holiday weight gain? More than a quarter of women would be "extremely upset" if they put on just five pounds.

"These behaviors cut across racial and ethnic lines and are not limited to any one group," said Cynthia R. Bulik, a nutrition professor at the campus, who led the research.

"Women who identified their ethnic backgrounds as Hispanic or Latina, white, black or African American and Asian were all represented among the women who reported unhealthy eating behaviors," she said.

The research was based on a survey of more than 4,000 women who revealed intimate eating habits, from the amount of time they spent dieting to how often they thought about food.

Two-thirds of them were actually on a diet while more than half dieted even though they were of a normal weight. Some said they lied about their dieting - not to mention their weight. Others admitted their weight and body image was "the most important aspect" of their self-identity.

Dieting extremes were not uncommon.

"What we found most surprising was the unexpectedly high number of women who engage in unhealthy purging activities. …
source:https://www.questia.com/read/1G1-178184763/u-s-women-fear-food-self-image-study-disordered

Pepper, to taste

4 oz pepper jack cheese, sliced into thin 1/4 inch slices

1/2 c cooked spinach (frozen and thawed or sauteed fresh)

1 tbsp seasoned bread crumb

1/2 tbsp Cajun seasoning

Salt, to taste

Pepper, to taste

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Using a sharp knife, make slits in the chicken breasts widthwise that are about 3/4 inches apart, making sure not to cut all the way down through the bottom of the chicken breast. You will have about 7 or 8 slits per chicken breast, depending on how large your chicken breasts are. Season the chicken with salt and pepper.

Stuff the spinach and pepper jack slices in the slits of the chicken. I've found that it's easier to place the cheese in before the spinach.

Combine the bread crumb and Cajun seasoning in a small bowl. Sprinkle the mixture evenly over the chicken.

Place each chicken breast on its own lightly greased sheet of tin foil and make a "bowl" loosely surrounding each chicken breast. This keeps the juices contained.

• Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through. Remove each chicken breast from its tin foil "bowl" and place on a serving dish. Enjoy!