All the fish are swimming in the water

February 22nd - February 28th is National Eating Disorder Awareness (NEDA) week! 


Here are some facts about eating disorders:

1. Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate among all mental illnesses.

2. Eating disorders are not choices, but serious biologically influenced illnesses. 

3. Recovery is possible.

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At a recent therapy session, I was venting to my therapist about some of the ignorant comments that were said to me only a few days earlier. She gave me a great analogy about diet culture that really stuck with me. She said, 'diet culture is all around us; it's like people are fish swimming in the ocean and the water is diet culture. It's always there and we are surrounded by it." She really hit the nail on the head. I don't think I can go a single day without hearing someone, whether that be on TV/radio/podcast or in person, talking about eating 'healthy', weight gain/loss, good/bad foods etc.

Being that this is just the way of the world, a person in recovery from an eating disorder is pushing hard against the norm to live a life that is full and our definition of healthy. I am fully prepared for people to make comments about my weight post baby, and how 'great I look' and how I'm losing that baby weight. These are comments that are seemingly second nature in our society, and people do not think about what cost that may have to someone in recovery. Why do we think it is okay for us to comment on a person's body? Why is it that someone looks 'great' when they lose weight, but whisper behind their back when the gain weight?


I have recently had people make comments about what is a 'healthy' way to feed children, and more specifically, my child. Do I let my child eat a cookie as part of her snack or even breakfast on occasion? Yes. You may think this is not 'healthy', but I'll get to more on that later. In our household we don't serve dessert as a reward for eating dinner, we serve it with dinner and if that's all Giuliana eats then so be it. We follow the 'Division of Responsibility' and other feeding habits based on Ellyn Satter's 'Child of Mine' book and it's working just fine for us. Stay in your lane.

As I am writing this I am eating a brownie for a snack. Could I have chosen to eat fruit instead? Of course I could have but I'm eating what I want at this very moment. Now let me get on my soapbox about good/bad foods. Are you ready? Guess what? Good/bad doesn't exist.

Real Life RD blogger, Robyn, states, 'in order to make peace with food, it’s really important to view all food on equal grounds. Putting certain foods on a pedestal while demonizing others leads to binging, backlash eating, over restriction, and of course, a whole heck of a lot of shame and guilt. I think what makes this so difficult is the fact that while morally equivalent, certain foods are more nutritious than others. That doesn’t mean those foods are better than foods that are less nutritious – they simply have more nutrients and serve a different purpose.' Try to think of these tips the next time you tell yourself you cannot have a certain food because it is 'bad' for you. See what purpose the food is fulfilling for you and your body.

My goal is to help educate people about the prevalence of eating disorders and how you can be more aware of the impact your words and actions may have on someone struggling with an eating disorder and/or in recovery from an eating disorder. I also understand that we are all swimming in the water of diet culture, so even if my words impact just one person I am happy with that. After all, "The People Crazy Enough to Think They Can Change the World Are the Ones Who Do"


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