The Grey Area of Eating Disorders
Eating disorders are not always black and white. It’s not always clear whether or not someone has crossed the threshold to a diagnosable eating disorder or if they are “just dieting” and watching what they eat; both of which are harmful. Part of this ambiguity is because society has made it normalized to engage in dieting behaviors. We live in a society where ads for detox and skinny teas which are basically laxatives are not out of the norm. These behaviors are some of the same eating disorder signs to be aware of.
Taylor Swift recently opened up in her documentary Miss Americana about the grey area and how slippery the decline to disordered eating can be. “There’s always some standard of beauty that you’re not meeting,” she says. Swift admits there have been times in the past when she’s seen “a picture of me where I feel like I looked like my tummy was too big, or… someone said that I looked pregnant … and that’ll just trigger me to just starve a little bit — just stop eating.” She recognized scrutinizing these photos as well as making comprehensive lists of everything she’d consume in a day were unhealthy; all of these behaviors can be eating disorder signs. This grey area can be shown on a spectrum of eating behaviors.
Swift said at the time she was unaware that anything was wrong and would defend her eating habits to anyone that showed concern. “What are you talking about? Of course, I eat. …. I exercise a lot.’ And I did exercise a lot. But I wasn’t eating.”
“I thought that I was supposed to feel like I was going to pass out at the end of a show, or in the middle of it,” she says in the documentary. “Now I realize, no, if you eat food, have energy, get stronger, you can do all these shows and not feel (exhausted).” Swift also says her healing process took coming to the realization with what size her body was naturally meant to be at. She’s reconciled “the fact that I’m a size 6 instead of a size double-zero.”
If you haven’t watched the documentary yet I highly recommend it, not only because Taylor Swift is an amazing talent but also I’m sure so many women can relate to her struggles and inevitable failure of living up to all the standards for beauty. “If you’re thin enough, then you don’t have that ass that everybody wants,” she says in the film. “But if you have enough weight on you to have an ass, your stomach isn’t flat enough. It’s all just f—ing impossible.”
These impossible beauty standards are just one component of diet culture. Diet culture also includes weight stigma, dieting fads, and media promoting a thin ideal. If we truly want to prevent eating disorders and create a culture where full recovery is possible, we need to learn to identify Diet Culture and speak out against it.
I was a Taylor Swift fan before and after watching her documentary I’m an even bigger fan now because she chose to speak out. She made the conscious effort to speak about the slippery slope of dieting and how it can lead to an eating disorder.
Dieting and diet culture is an insidious, pervasive way of thinking that is a risk factor for developing an eating disorder.
Studies have shown that dieting is a risk factor for developing an eating disorder. Sometimes it’s a slippery slope of behaviors that lead to an eating disorder. A simple diet like ‘low carb’ or ‘no sugar’ can be the trigger that starts a decline to pathological dieting or eating disorder, especially for adolescent girls.
How to Identify and Move Away From Diet Culture:
Become aware of spoken words.
I always tell my clients, the first step is awareness. We can’t stop doing something if we don’t even know we are doing it. Start by paying attention to conversations you are having with friends and family. Are those around you constantly saying, “I’ll start my diet tomorrow.” or, “Today is my cheat day.” Phrases like these point to a disconnected relationship with your body and food.
Curate social media feeds.
Unfollow anyone who makes you feel like you’re not doing enough or who shares diet culture messages. Follow more accounts that show body diversity and spread positive messages. This is a great list of accounts to follow to give you some ideas. Another account (and one of T.Swift’s favorites) is Jameela Jamil is an outspoken actress who has used her influence to call out celebrities and companies promoting unrealistic and harmful beauty standards on her platform, @i_weigh.
Know that you can be healthy at different sizes.
30 million Americans struggle with an eating disorder and even more battle with food and body image. This issue deserves our attention and prevention efforts.
A big part of diet culture is weight stigma that stems from healthcare promoting people fit within a certain BMI. The truth is that skinny people can be unhealthy as well and BMI, size, weight, etc. is not a reliable indicator of health. As this article by Lindo Bacon states, “Concern has arisen that this weight focus is not only ineffective at producing thinner, healthier bodies, but may also have unintended consequences… A growing trans-disciplinary movement called Health at Every Size (HAES) challenges the value of promoting weight loss and dieting behavior and argues for a shift in focus to weight-neutral outcomes. Randomized controlled clinical trials indicate that a HAES approach is associated with statistically and clinically relevant improvements in physiological measures (e.g., blood pressure, blood lipids), health behaviors (e.g., eating and activity habits, dietary quality), and psychosocial outcomes (such as self-esteem and body image), and that HAES achieves these health outcomes more successfully than weight-loss treatment and without the contraindications associated with a weight focus.” To learn more about the Health At Every Size approach click here.
For those that are reading this and are concerned that they themselves or a loved one may be struggling with an eating disorder read about some signs and symptoms of eating disorders, take this screening questionnaire, or learn more about how and where to find treatment.
