Eating Disorders - Project World Peace

Eating Disorders

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Body Revolution
(agnesliinnea, Pixabay)

Do Not Feed the Model
(geralt, Pixabay)

Baby enjoys watermelon
(PublicDomain
Pictures, Pixabay)

Horse enjoys food
(christels, Pixabay)

Yolanda statue
(photosforyou, Pixabay)

Eating Disorders

Our attitude to food often reflects our relationship with Love.

Body Revolution ('Start a Revolution - Stop Hating Your Body' on young woman's belly)

First, let us look at how nature and evolution has designed the body (Blame My Brain book by Nicola Morgan, pp.128-132). Adolescent girls and boys are opposites.
The adolescent girl starts to look like a fully grown woman well before she is fully fertile. She is only fully fertile at age 19, in all cultures worldwide and in the past.
The adolescent boy is fully fertile before he looks like a fully-grown man. His muscles and skeleton do not bulk up until age 18 at least. So he looks relatively boy-like.
These adaptations allow the older members of the tribe to teach and support the younger ones without feeling like there is a conflict over mates. Adult males see the young males as weedy and the adult females know the young females are not fully fertile. This is all non-threatening and encourages co-operation. I see this as the Way of Love.
In many other mammal groups, older males will fight/kill the younger males, and older women will suppress/exclude the younger females. But in those groups it is not a big deal, as adolescence is short and there is less to learn.
In modern human society (alongside the societal factors outlined below), the early, rapid, outward growth of the female body means that some girls think they are getting fat. And so teenage girls (and young girls even) tend to become obsessed with their weight and are vulnerable to eating disorders.
But young females instead need to realise that these changes are about being attractive and womanly. Research using pictures shows that women often think that men are attracted to bodies thinner than the men choose. Evolutionarily, a skinny female body is not attractive to men. And if you eat too little, you risk damaging your long-term health through insufficient nutrients.
So, understand and re-harmonise with the ancient Way of Love!

Second, let us look at how society 'designs' the body and corrupts Nature/Love.
If your relationship with Love has been traumatised as with childhood abuse, or by a dysfunctional society that only celebrates ultra-thin role models for beauty - then your relationship with Love has been damaged. This is attachment trauma.

At a society level, this attachment trauma reflects a patriarchal culture that seeks to control women. Your society only loves you if you are thin, immature and vulnerable. As opposed to fully woman, adult and empowered.
Consider model Sara Ziff (BBC, posted and accessed 29 November 2012):

'A 13-year-old girl can be naturally skinny, like a beanpole, in a way that a grown woman, who has hips and breasts, generally can't - and shouldn't aspire to be. And I think we need to ask ourselves why that's become the ideal. Why do we have this perverse fascination with images of such young girls who are so small and inexperienced and really quite vulnerable? There's a Peter Pan syndrome in fashion. As soon as we start to get older and show signs of maturity, we're told to go on an extreme diet, a lot of the time, or we're discarded and replaced by a younger model. The models never grow up. And that sends a message to women - we're not allowed to grow up.'

Thus you are only loved by society if not grown up = eating disorders to be not grown up.

This is a long and ongoing battle, to create an equal/fair society. The best you can do is realise that you are up against these powerful forces. Then practise Self-Love, become fully woman (e.g. explore goddesses), and become active in campaigning for change (even if only by petition signing).

'She wins who calls herself beautiful and challenges the world to change to truly see her.' (Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth)

At a family level, this attachment trauma need not be how many think of childhood abuse. It can arise from unloving parenting and societal techniques like hospital birth, sleep training or the unnatural system of schools. So, society can challenge eating disorders by reverting to the ways of Natural Family Living, Attachment Parenting, Natural Education.

At a personal level, if you have an eating disorder, you need to acknowledge that you do.
It may be wise to share this with caring people that can support you.
Then you need to practise Self-Love.

You need to move from an ultra-processed foods (UPFs) diet to one which is minimally or not processed. UPFs make you eat without feeling sated. They are cheap, linked to disease and obesity. You need to see the danger in this and avoid them as much as you can!
Grow some or most of your own food if possible. Even in small spaces, this is possible. Fresh usually tastes so much better!
Ideally, you prepare most of your food from scratch, and do your own cooking. This is hard given that corporations are heavily marketing UPFs, that modern life is so fast, and that we have become disconnected from simple wholesome foods, and lost the skill of food preparation that was fundamental to our ancestors.

And you need to learn to love and enjoy food - the wholesome type!

"You’re supposed to enjoy food...", says ex-anorexic Rebecca Hills (BBC, 2m28s, posted and accessed 10 February 2019).

The ability to enjoy your food is probably the most important 'diet' you need.
O.M. Aïvanhov talks of The Yoga of Nutrition where our attitude to nutrition is far more important than what we eat or how much we eat.

You need to bring a sacred, thankful, joyful and compassionate attitude to food:-

Sacred because food is given to us by Mother Earth.
Thankful that we have food, as some have little or none. Talk to your food and thank it for its sacrifice. Thank it for its long journey and its link to the Sun!
Joyful because that is how you would like to be, right?
Compassionate because just like food lovingly gives for your sustenance, you too want to help others, right?

Can you work on this?
Rather than automatically always watching TV or some other screen while you eat UPFs?

Some may say that their eating disorder is due to enjoying their food too much!
Then you may need to understand the 'Animal' in us and how evolution has created us.
This is explained in more depth in both The Conflict between Evolutionary Skills & Modern Life and Overweight. UPFs are heavily implicated.

If you cannot yet love yourself or cannot enjoy wholesome food, then you are still in the process of healing yourself. This is okay. Keep going.
Keep it simple and natural.
Be patient and compassionate on your journey...

Resources

Vertical Veg [how to grow food in small spaces, with a global community].
Protein mania: the rich world’s new diet obsession (Bee Wilson, The Guardian, 2019) [Why we can’t get enough when we already eat too much].
'I used to scream: For God's sake, just eat!' (BBC, 2019).
How ultra-processed food took over your shopping basket (Bee Wilson, The Guardian, 2020) [It's linked to illness & obesity; it's killing food preparation & cooking skills; it's heavily marketed by corporations].
Body neutrality: What if you don't really love or hate your body? (BBC, 2020).
I have never eaten cucumber, onion – or an egg. Can I cure my extreme food phobias? (Joe Stone, The Guardian, 2022).
How food companies ‘sweetened the world’ – and increased the risk of disease (Kaamil Ahmed, The Guardian, 2023) [The hard sell of ultra-processed foods in developing countries as being ‘good for you’ gives children a taste for sugar and salt that could have lasting effects on their health].
Food insecurity and eating disorders are linked and rising. Where’s the plan to tackle them? (Dorothy Dunn, The Guardian, 2023).
Eating disorders are not a choice, they are a disease – I wish more people knew how treatable they are (Dr Xavier Mulenga, The Guardian, 2024) [Recovery can be lengthy, but he sees more people get better when they engage with treatment than not].
‘Worrying lack of moderation’: how eating disorder posts proliferate on X (The Guardian, 2024) [Users say harmful content from accounts they do not follow appears even after requests to block it].

Yolanda by Miriam Lenk at Lake Constance, Germany. This is a statue of a confident fat woman.
The artist focuses on femininity and thus questions current ideals of beauty.
The artist says that she “occupies the available space and does not care about any objections.”

Also see:-

Overweight

Physical Body

Diet articles

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