Exactly.

30th June 2008

posted in Diets, Eating Disorders, Health/Nutrition |

There are those who come to this site and don’t seem to quite *get* why it is an eating disorders awareness and education site rails against issues of weight-based discrimination and promotes fat rights. A story on Canada.com articulates one of my primary reasons for doing so nicely.

The thrust of the story is that some Canadian doctors and researchers are frustrated at the inattention given to eating disorders, even though they say up to 38 percent of Canadian children suffer from some degree of an eating disorder and that 1 in 10 sufferers will ultimately die from them. Here’s Dr. Leora Pinhas, a psychiatric director for the eating disorders program at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto:

Pinhas dismissed the attention being given to childhood obesity rates - which she says have not increased since 2003 and have not increased in any clinically significant way since the late 1990s. The most disturbing thing about the constant news about obesity rates is it’s likely fueling eating disorders, Pinhas said.

“Dieting is the gateway to eating disorders. If you have people encouraged to diet because being fat is so bad, you’re only giving them an intervention that will make them fat, or give them an eating disorder or make them feel bad about themselves.”

Still not convinced? Chew on this…

In 1999, Australian researchers found dieting to be the single largest risk factor for the development of anorexia and bulimia. Two thirds of new cases of eating disorders, they say, are in girls who have dieted moderately - more on this study here.
In 2003, the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance found that almost 60 percent of female and 29 percent of male school students were trying to lose weight. Prevalence estimates for dieting among children aged 6–11 range from 20 to 56 percent for girls and from 31 to 39 percent for boys. Research suggests that dieting behavior may be causally linked to both obesity and eating disorders.
In 2005, the American Psychological Association raised fears that legislators and school officials may inadvertently promote eating disorders as many states look to pass obesity-fighting legislation. Speakers pointed to the problem at a June 2005 congressional briefing, “Schools, students, obesity and eating disorders,” coordinated by the Eating Disorders Coalition for Research, Policy and Action (EDC) and sponsored by Sen. Hillary Clinton. “Unfortunately, our approach to childhood obesity is doing harm and has been making the problem of eating disorders worse,” said psychologist Margo Maine, PhD, who has specialized in treatment of eating disorders for more than 20 years.
A study published in the November 2007 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine of overweight teen girls found that more than one-third engaged in what researchers called “extreme weight control behaviors,” like vomiting or taking diet pills or laxatives in an attempt to lose weight. “We usually look for these behaviors in very thin girls, but here we see a very high prevalence in overweight girls,” said the lead author.
Earlier this year, a team of epidemiologists from the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health found that girls who frequently read magazine articles about dieting and weight-loss were twice as likely to engage in unhealthy weight-control behaviors (fasting, skipping meals, smoking cigarettes) than those who did not read such articles. And the odds of using extreme weight-control behaviors (vomiting, using laxatives) were three times higher in the highest frequency readers. Study link here.
University of Minnesota’s Dianne Neumark-Sztaine, a professor of epidemiology there, authored another study released just last month in the journal Pediatrics. The study examined how parents of overweight kids who know their kid is overweight use such information - full study available here or read our discussion of it here. Five years later, those children whose parents encouraged them to diet were much more likely to still be overweight — about 74 percent of boys compared with 52 percent of boys not encouraged to diet. For girls, the difference was 66 percent and 44 percent. “Dieting,” she concluded, “is not an effective long-term weight-management strategy for youth.”

As part of my eating disorders education platform, I wholeheartedly support a healthy diet and good fitness. Just as a starving anorectic brain will not function properly, neither will a brain that is not receiving the nutrients it needs, regardless of the amount of calories consumed. The problem for most naysayers is the understanding that a healthy diet and regular fitness regime will not always make — or keep — one thin. Everyday, researchers are discovering more about the influence of genetics on body size and shape and finding that while environmental factors may pull the trigger, genetics loads the gun. And part of having a healthy diet is also having a healthy relationship with food. In a healthy diet, there are no “good” and “bad” foods and no food is considered off-limits or taboo. One does not eat according to some prescribed diet plan or by counting points, but rather by listening to one’s own bodily cues on hunger and satiety and its needs and wants.

Poor nutrition and sedentary lifestyles do pose a significant health issue across the nation, but its one that affects all Americans and not just fat Americans. The scholarship on weight and weight-loss overwhelmingly shows that it does not work to make people feel ashamed of their bodies. The data are striking – talking about weight, worrying too much about diet, dieting, obsessing over food, calories and weight increases the risk not only of eating disorders, but also of becoming overweight. The question therefore is: Are we helping or hurting they very people we’re trying to assist?

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This entry was posted on Monday, June 30th, 2008 at 10:50 am and is filed under Diets, Eating Disorders, Health/Nutrition. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1 On June 30th, 2008, nuckingfutz

said:

Poor nutrition and sedentary lifestyles do pose a significant health issue across the nation, but its one that affects all Americans and not just fat Americans.

Oh, we SOOO need this on a billboard. In every major American city.

posted on June 30th, 2008 at 12:28 pm

2 On June 30th, 2008, Liza

I’ve never had an eating disorder, though I would say much of my life has been ruled by various kinds of dieting and what would probably classify as “disordered eating.” I like coming here because it’s a very body positive place. I still struggle with (mentally) separating healthy living and weight loss. I’m trying to live a healthier lifestyle, mainly by incorporating regular exercise and making nutritious food choices and I need to remind myself that, while my weight will probably adjust itself accordingly, it doesn’t need to be my primary focus.

Having said that, as someone who has never been clinically considered someone with an eating disorder, I don’t get how people could not get it. If eating disorders are related to a fear of fat, wouldn’t a site for people who have recovered from logically promote a healthy body image and the notion that fat is OK? (is “recovered” right or should it be “recovering” - not to sound completely ignorant, but is an ED one of those things where it’s a lifelong process so you never say “recovered,” like how they do with alcoholism? I’m really asking, because I have no idea)

posted on June 30th, 2008 at 12:29 pm

3 On June 30th, 2008, Rachel

Liza - I don’t think one can ever be totally cured of an ED, so I generally prefer to use the term “recovering.” The difficulty, however, comes when you try to define various degrees of recovery: “Recovering” can refer to someone in the early stages of recovery who is still actively struggling with their disorder and also to someone who has not displayed ED behaviors in years and no longer needs therapy. So, some people use the term “recovered” to indicate those individuals who have learned how to successfully manage their disorder and who have been stable in their recovery for an extended period of time.

And you’d think promoting healthy body images regardless of size would be a rational and logical stance for an ED awareness/education site to take, but the link backs I get to this blog include some sites that really just don’t seem to get it. If I write about weight-based discrimination, it’s assumed I am fat and that I am advancing some sort of pro-fat agenda. It just so happens that I am fat, but one doesn’t have to be fat to be against sizeism.

What disturbs me most, however, is the recent trend in both academic and medical research to lump obesity itself in with the study of eating disorders. The very inclusion assumes that if one is obese, one must have some sort of psychological or emotional problem that has made one obese. Once again, it’s the stereotype of the fat person as emotional overeater and compulsive binger. The assumption is not only wrong, it’s vastly offensive to those fat people who do not have emotional issues around food or weight, and dangerous to those thin people who do.

posted on June 30th, 2008 at 1:07 pm

4 On June 30th, 2008, Healthy is NOT an synonym for Thin « I AM in shape. ROUND is a shape. said:

[...] a very good point has been addressed in the process of touching on the subject of why it is that an eating disorders awareness and education site rails against issues of weight-based discriminati…. The point on which I wanted to elaborate is best summed up by this snippet from the above linked [...]

posted on June 30th, 2008 at 2:18 pm

5 On June 30th, 2008, Melissa

Thanks for posting this.
I notice that even when media tries to talk about how to eat healthy and exercise they still can’t get away from the notion of diet and thin.
It is all distorted, this notion of thin and health.
It is a mentality that is hard to compete with- my hope is that the inforomation on this blog will one day be considered common sense.

Thank you!

posted on June 30th, 2008 at 3:22 pm

6 On June 30th, 2008, MrsDrC

Information like you’ve posted get burried and next to never see’s the light of day in the major media…because it doesnt pay. There is far too much money to be made by American’s hating their bodies and going to extreme’s to “fix” themself. If we all accept ourself, who’s gonna get our money?

posted on June 30th, 2008 at 4:31 pm

7 On July 1st, 2008, Liza

Thanks Rachel

I was a psych major, but in all of my classes EDs didn’t come up much. Pretty much just in Abnormal, when we went through the DSM-IV pretty much page by page. Even then we didn’t talk a whole lot about treatments and recovery (from anything).

It would be nice if they had a whole elective about eating/body image (from a psych standpoint), much like the incredibly awesome and interesting Human Sexuality class I took (my favorite aspects of psychology have always been sexuality/gender and body image/self-esteem/sense of self).

posted on July 1st, 2008 at 3:36 pm

8 On July 2nd, 2008, Pat

Thank you to ‘Healthy is NOT a synonym for thin - I AM in shape. ROUND is a shape’!!! I have been needing a comeback for this crazy notion of being in or out of shape, and your words just struck gold with me. Love it.

posted on July 2nd, 2008 at 4:21 pm