Eating Disorders Awareness Week 2023 (Part 1)
Transforming the Narrative from Asks to Action
Written by Erin Nelson, RD
February 1st through 7th marks Eating Disorders Awareness Week (EDAW) 2023 and the theme this year is Transforming the Narrative from Asks to Action.
It is all about taking action to dispel myths and spread accurate information about eating disorders. It is about shifting the paradigm from asking permission to centre eating disorder education to creating an action plan to escalate awareness. It is estimated that, at any given time, 840,000 to 1,750,000 people in Canada have symptoms sufficient to meet the diagnostic criteria for an eating disorder (1). Make no mistake, eating disorders are a public health issue.
Creating awareness of accurate information about eating disorders is crucial to moving toward action, so I thought it may be a good idea to dispel a few myths about eating disorders.
Myth no. 1: You can tell by looking at someone whether they have an eating disorder. Conger an image in your mind of a person with an eating disorder. What do you see? Chances are you picture them as a young, able-bodied, white, female from an upper-middle class socio-economic background, in a very thin body. If the image in your mind was similar to this one, you are not alone. This is the image that the media portrays and is a prevalent narrative put forth in our society.
The truth is eating disorders affect people across all socio-economic backgrounds, sexual orientations, ages, genders, ethnic backgrounds, abilities, and races. People who are living with an eating disorder can be in any and every body shape and size as well. We are not able to tell that a person is suffering from an eating disorder by looking at them. This myth is so harmful because of how pervasive it is, even within the healthcare system, and can lead to someone being misdiagnosed or their symptoms not being taken seriously if they do not look like that stereotypical image.
Myth no. 2: An eating disorder is all about the food. This is actually very rarely the case. All eating disorders are complex mental illnesses that manifest in disturbances in the food relationship, often as a coping mechanism, and greatly impact quality of life. Dieting and a strong desire to change the way one’s body looks are certainly risk factors for developing an eating disorder, though an eating disorder itself is not all about the food.
Myth no. 3: Disordered eating and eating disorders are interchangeable terms. We can think of disordered eating as a spectrum with eating disorders on the far end. Disordered eating is an umbrella term for any behaviour(s) that cause a disruption in our food relationship. Eating disorders are always disordered eating, however disordered eating is not necessarily an eating disorder.
Some behaviours that disrupt our relationship with food include: restricting foods or whole food groups, calories, fat, carbohydrates or hours of the day we allow ourselves to eat, labelling foods as good or bad, feelings of shame, guilt or frustration with yourself for not having the “willpower” to stick to a rigid food plan, and feeling out of control around certain foods.
Myth no. 4: Someone is to blame for a person developing an eating disorder. This myth, in my opinion, is one of the most insidious. Developing an eating disorder is never the fault of family or friends and is certainly not the fault of the individual with an eating disorder. This belief only perpetuates the shame, judgement and guilt that is so often felt by families, friends and individuals living with an eating disorder.
The truth is, there are a multitude of factors that play into whether one person develops an eating disorder, while another person does not. Developing an eating disorder isn’t anyones’s fault. I want everyone to repeat that last statement over and over again until we can all feel that truth at our very core. If you take away nothing else from this article but that statement, I would be over-the-moon happy.
Now let’s get to the action part! Further to raising awareness of eating disorders is building our sense of confidence in preventing eating disorders as well as providing support to someone we think may be struggling with or has told us they have an eating disorder. So how do we create this sense of confidence?
Here are some things we can all start today to create an inclusive space that fosters a healthy relationship with food and body for ourselves and others:
Talk about food in a neutral way. There is no such thing as good foods and bad foods, even though diet culture has convinced many of us there are.
If you are currently on a diet, try to keep “progress” to yourself and not talk about the calories, macros, carbs, points you are counting.
Commit to learn more about Health at Every Size®, body liberation, weight stigma, food neutrality and fatphobia.
Do not comment on anyone else’s body. Even well-meaning comments such as “you look great, have you lost weight?” can be especially triggering for people struggling with eating or body image and it perpetuates the idea that thinner is better.
Do not comment on the food others are eating. Everyone eats different foods and in different quantities for a multitude of reasons. When someone is struggling with their relationship with food, it may be hard enough to eat at all, let alone when there is a perception that someone else has an opinion on it.
If your workplace has “let’s lose weight together” campaigns or events, maybe think about talking with the organizer about what other options there are that feel more inclusive. You can even use the examples above as a roadmap to help explain why these events may feel isolating to some.
Do you have the itch to make waves on a larger scale? Every day during EDAW, the National Eating Disorder Information Centre is hosting one hour of targeted, virtual space where like-minded individuals can all send letters and make phone calls to decision-makers across the country. They are calling this EDAW Action Hour. It really is unacceptable that so many people across our country meet the criteria for an eating disorder, yet the awareness is so minimal in our society, and this coordinated effort has the potential to effect positive change on a system and policy level. You can find more information here (2).
NEDIC Information linked in the article:
1 https://nedic.ca/media/uploaded/NEDIC_2021_ED_facts__stats.pdf
