How To Begin Overcoming Negative Body Image And Eating Disorders

“Oppression spares no body. Injustices are both systemic and intimate, taking root in the flesh.”

–Mary Watkins

You’re thinking it’s time to begin overcoming negative body image and eating disorders. But you aren’t 100 percent certain. And you’re not even sure it is possible. That’s ok. You can still move forward to improve your relationship with your body.

It is normal to want to change, but not want to change, at the same time.

Here is what you’d probably like to change:

• Preoccupation with food, weight, and your body
• Constant comparisons, especially on Instagram and other platforms
• The Groundhog Day way of living your life

First, that’s awesome! Being open to change is not easy.

Especially in our image oriented, Instagram -ridden culture.

Recommendations for overcoming negative body image and eating disorders are nuanced.

“Do this” and “don’t do that” recommendations are oversimplified and generic. And, they tend to focus on personal responsibility and ignore context.

While advances in genetics and brain neurobiology help explain how complex these problems are, there is sooooo much more to it.

Body image issues and eating disorders are not ‘just a phase’, your way of getting attention, or due to vanity.

So what is the “more to it?” I am talking about the bigger picture. More specifically, the sociology and anthropology of negative body image and eating disorders, which affect us all.

We know now that strong economic, political, environmental, and social forces are at the center of developing and overcoming negative body image and eating disorders.

Racism, sexism, patriarchy weight bias, and other ism’s are key to understanding how/why you developed body image and eating disorder issues. The “isms” need to be recognized in your own healing journey. And not “just” if you identify as a feminist, social justice proponent or political activist.

We can’t heal our relationship with our body with a plan (i.e. diet) to make our body into what dominant culture says it should be.

Healing negative body image and eating disorders is challenging for a lot of reasons. (Remember nuance?). The biggest challenge of all is the backdrop.

An underappreciated force is Diet Culture. Actually, it is more than a force or backdrop. It is the air we breathe.

Diet Culture is everywhere. Because we live in it, we often don’t even know of or recognize its existence. Kind of like fish not knowing they are wet.

What is Diet Culture anyway? Christy Harrison, RD, MPH, is an expert on this topic. (Check out her weekly podcast.)

Her definition of Diet Culture is that it is a system of beliefs that:

• Worships thinness
• Equates weight and morality
• Promises weight loss will lead to higher status
• Demonizes some foods and elevates others
• Oppresses people who don’t match up

Diet culture is the single biggest reason for negative body image and eating disorders.

Remember, Diet Culture refers to an entire system of beliefs. (See above). The beliefs equate body size with worthiness, morality, and health.

The origins of fixation on weight go back to colonialism, racism, and sexism. The purpose of the beliefs has always been – and still is – to establish social hierarchies. And to control people.

Oppression derails the ability to be ok with differences and damages the relationship we have with our own bodies.

Certain groups of people (e.g. women, fat people, people of color) are most vulnerable to internalizing cultural messages. Doing so causes damage. Preoccupation with weight and appearance is a way to keep the focus on meeting “ideals” rather than on more meaningful ambitions, be it political, social, or economic.