Here's an alarming statistic: According to the National Eating Disorders Assocation, some 20 million women and 10 million men will develop an eating disorder at some point in their lives. That means you almost definitely know someone struggling with or in recovery from an eating disorder, and since it's almost impossible to know from the outside — eating disorders affect people of any age, sex, gender, race, ethnicity or socioeconomic group — that person is likely suffering in silence.
Earlier this summer, I attended an open forum hosted by The Chain — a nonprofit founded by Ruthie Friedlander and Christina Grasso to provide a peer support network for women in fashion and entertainment struggling with eating disorders — and I was struck by how our actions can seriously impact someone else's recovery. From seemingly innocuous comments about eating habits to straight-up mean-spirited jokes and gossip, we are triggering people every single day.
It's become a bonding tactic between women to complain about our bodies or our diets, but not only is this behavior not helpful to ourselves, it's potentially harmful to others. Whether it's at a dinner event or on your social media, it's time to curb the food and diet chat.
"I think there's still such an insane pressure to be thin and an attitude that being really thin, even if it comes at the expense of your health, is something to revere. I can't pinpoint where exactly it comes from, or why, but I know it exists because I see it every day and I feel it every day," Grasso says.
There is nothing wrong with being inherently thin! This is not to say that there is a "right" and "wrong" body type, and certainly there are fashion models whose bodies are the result of genetics, and we are not trying to shame those people. "The best way to ensure that young women and men see themselves in the media is to include models that actually look like the average American, rather than some unrealistic image that our youth strives to become," says Kronengold. "While there has been recent improvement involving the inclusion of diverse images in the media, there's still a lack of representation of non-thin, non-white, differently-abled bodies.
Let's not dedicate any more press space to "doctors" or "nutritionists" shilling crash diets or cleanses, or to "fitness gurus" pushing untenable workout routines. The same goes for writing about the diet habits of actresses or models; they may be traffic gold, but they can also be harmful. And please: No more office-wide diets.
Ultimately, don't forget: You are in control of your own social media. Friedlander recommends unfollowing anyone who might be triggering to you. "Something that we've forgotten about Instagram is that it's actually this incredible tool to only look at stuff you want to look at, and only look at stuff that makes you feel good, and I think we've gotten away from that idea," she says. "I really urge people to get back to that idea.
That's awesome, keep it up 🔥