Diet culture and eating disorders: Opposite ends, same spectrum
Image: Sean Benesh, Unsplash
Today, I'm going to talk about two aspects of eating disorders:
1. Updating perceptions of eating disorders
Who is affected? Some recent statistics to give you the current picture in the UK (you may be surprised).
2. Why diet culture is like a ‘gateway drug’ for eating disorders
What is diet culture and how does it link to eating disorders? And what can we as individuals do about it?
Before we go on, bear in mind that this article is about eating disorders, disordered eating, body image and diet culture. Towards the end, I signpost to support services in this area.
If you think you might find this topic difficult, please take care of yourself. Stop reading at any time - you have my wholehearted permission!
Still here? Let’s go.
1. Updating perceptions of eating disorders
While eating disorders are complex and multi-layered expressions of a person’s psychological and emotional inner landscape, they may look quite different to the image many of us have in mind.
Popular culture tends to show us one version of eating disorders and that’s anorexia nervosa, usually in the form of an extremely thin, white adolescent girl.
Only half of this picture fits with the real story, however.
Image: Annie Spratt, Unsplash
Eating disorder demographics FAQ
Q. How many people in the UK have an eating disorder?
A. Up to 3.4 million people in the UK are believed to meet the diagnostic criteria for an eating disorder. That’s around 5% of the population.
Q. Does it just affect women and girls?
A. No - 25% of sufferers are believed to be men and boys and people outside the gender binary are four times more likely to have an eating disorder.
Q. Is adolescence the most likely time for an eating disorder to develop?
Q. What about ethnicity?
A. While hospitalisations for eating disorders are on the rise across the board, they rose by 216% for those from a Black African background and by 53% for all BAME patients compared with 31% of white patients.
Q. Did the pandemic affect eating disorders?
Q. Is Anorexia Nervosa the most common eating disorder?
A. No. It only makes up around 8% of people affected.
(More information on the different types of eating disorders can be found on the SWEDA website.)
These demographics may paint a broader picture of eating disorders in the UK but how and why might they be relevant to the other 95% of the population? And what is the link between eating disorders and diet culture?
2. Why diet culture is like a ‘gateway drug’ for eating disorders
Image: Sam Burke, Unspash
What is diet culture?
Weight loss diets are commonplace. A 2022 YouGov poll estimates that 52% of adults globally are trying to lose weight, with British adults fitting this statistic exactly. The reasons behind this drive to shrink our bodies will be myriad and complex. However, the cultural water we all swim in is diet culture.
Diet culture is ‘a moral hierarchy of bodies fueled by health myths’. Another way of thinking of it is as a set of beliefs that values thinness, appearance, and shape above health and wellbeing.
Diet culture provides us with a very specific idea of what bodies are acceptable. If your body doesn’t meet the narrow ideal of conventional beauty, your body image can plummet and you’re likely to want to change the way your body looks.
While our body image is not a static thing and can change and flex throughout our lives, the big concern is that poor body image is a risk factor for disordered eating.
What is disordered eating?
Disordered eating includes skipping meals, binge eating, restricting certain food types or fasting. It describes activities which represent a deviation from the cultural norm.
Having said that, you could argue that skipping meals, binge eating, restriction and fasting have become so normalised through diet culture that we no longer see them as disordered.
For anyone who has tried any sort of commercial weight-loss diet, these activities are incredibly familiar. Restricting certain food types is what most of them are built on.
Fasting - beloved by bro-science podcasters everywhere - has become so popular that it brings up 540,000,000 Google search results.
Disordered eating is so normalised we don’t even notice it anymore. Normalised? Yes. Risky? Very. Disordered eating is a risk factor for developing an eating disorder.
Image: Kylli Kittus, Unsplash
An equation that doesn’t square
Let’s recap.
Diet culture increases our focus on the way our body looks
Body image - how you think and feel about the way your body looks, and how you treat your body - can fall if our bodies don’t match conventional beauty ideals
Dieting promises to change our bodies and seems like it will fix poor body image but the research says it does the reverse (plus diets don’t work - a post for another day)
Dieting is normalised disordered eating
Dieting and disordered eating are risk factors for developing eating disorders of all types
Eating disorders are deadly
Not only are eating disorders increasingly common, they are dangerous. Anorexia has the highest mortality rate of any mental illness.
Eating disorders can take hold rapidly and can be difficult to treat, particularly the longer they persist.
During treatment, clients continue to be exposed to one of the key risk factors as diet culture is so omnipresent. It’s a daily battle to challenge the messages that we receive from all around us.
Image: Jimmy Dean, Unsplash
How you can help
Given that eating disorders are increasingly prevalent in most if not all demographics, it’s likely you may know people who fall somewhere on the low body image > disordered eating > eating disorder spectrum. Perhaps you do, too.
Rampant diet culture may mean that you are actively trying to achieve weight loss or to change your appearance in some way.
I’m not in the business of telling people what to do and I certainly never blame individuals for wanting to be less oppressed in our oppressive society (which is often what happens when our bodies are closer to the thin ideal).
Instead, we can all take responsibility for how we operate in the world and make choices that will help rather than harm.
Here are a few pointers that could help to dial down the diet culture. These apply to all interactions with others but in particular for those around adolescents:
Avoid body-shaming of any kind, including your own
Avoid discussions around weight loss, food restriction or ‘diet maths’ (exercise as compensation for eating)
Compliment others for non-appearance related attributes. Not sure how? Consider the following:
What is unique about the person?
What do you like about their manner?
What do you notice about them?
What do you miss about when they’re not there?
How would you describe their best qualities to others?
Is there anything about the other person you’d like to be more like yourself?
Set activity goals that have nothing to do with appearance. Focus instead on how your body feels afterwards
Weight does not equal health. Broaden your definition of health beyond diet and exercise to incorporate sleep, stress reduction, strong relationships, being in nature, access to medicine, supportive community - all of which are hugely beneficial to health
Remember that health is not a look and that all bodies are good bodies. Research shows if we make people feel better about their body regardless of what it looks like they are more likely to engage in health promoting behaviours.
Ramp up your critical thinking and media literacy skills. Question, analyse and evaluate what you see and hear around how bodies are described, viewed and treated in popular culture. Ask yourself ‘what else might be true?’
Review your social media feeds. Unfollow accounts that make you feel bad about your body.
Image: Annie Spratt, Unsplash
Signposting to eating disorder support services
Finally, here are some suggestions for where you can find support if you or someone you know is experiencing issues with their body image, disordered eating or eating disorders.
Samaritans - free, confidential telephone/online support for anyone in crisis
SWEDA: Supporting people with eating disorders across the south west
My services
I’m a NCPS Accredited Registrant Psychotherapeutic Counsellor and I have specialist training in body image, disordered eating, eating disorders and Intuitive Eating.
For my Masters research dissertation, I looked at how equipped therapists are to work with clients who present with issues in this area. If you’re interested in this topic and would like to know more, I’d be happy to chat. I also have a reading list that’s available to view here.
At the time of writing, I have some limited availability for new counselling and psychotherapy clients in Bristol and online. Please get in touch to find out more.
Please note that I don’t offer a crisis service.