I’ve been navigating life in a larger body for as long as I can remember. My journey with dieting started at just six years old, influenced by my own pediatrician. Instead of approaching my parents privately, she openly labeled me overweight, scrutinizing my eating habits and insisting I needed to lose weight. She even provided a chart for our fridge, detailing “always foods, sometimes foods, and never foods.” That moment marked the beginning of nearly thirty years of turmoil surrounding food and body image for me. While I never achieved the thinness I was led to believe was ideal, I became expert at punishing myself for my size. Guilt became my constant companion. Fat was condemned, and I felt like the worst of all.
It took me until my thirties to start breaking free from that shame, a process I know will require ongoing effort for the rest of my life. The scars of fat shaming run deep within my psyche.
Recently, Dr. Oliver Thompson, a doctor in the NHS, published a compelling essay highlighting how our adult relationships with food influence how children perceive food, weight, and their self-worth. His essay is packed with alarming statistics, and I found myself nodding in dismay.
As reported by the Boston Globe, anorexia nervosa—a severe eating disorder marked by extreme food restriction, fear of gaining weight, and a skewed body image—is the second deadliest mental health condition in the U.S., trailing only behind opioid addiction. The rate of anorexia among children aged 8 to 12 in the U.K. and Ireland has doubled since 2006, particularly affecting those in elementary school. Dr. Lisa Sanders, clinical director at a renowned children’s hospital, stated, “We are alarmed by the number of very young patients, some as young as nine, who are actively trying to alter their shape and size through food restriction.”
This is unsettling on its own, but it becomes even more troubling when you consider that anorexia has one of the highest mortality rates among psychiatric disorders, outpacing depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia. According to the National Association of Anorexia and Associated Disorders, someone dies from an eating disorder every 62 minutes due to suicide or related health complications.
Young children are developing this life-threatening disorder at an alarming rate, and Dr. Thompson suggests that societal attitudes toward weight may play a significant role.
The first thing he believes we must address is the pervasive stigma surrounding weight. It’s a sentiment many larger-bodied individuals like myself can attest to—we experience the damaging effects of fat shaming daily. While many continue to endorse body shaming, it’s crucial to vocalize the negative impact it has, especially when supported by medical professionals.
We live in an environment saturated with diet culture, which propagates the idea that thinness equates to health, while fatness signifies illness. This culture glorifies orthorexia and excessive exercise, framing them as self-discipline rather than harmful obsessions. It has stripped the joy from physical activity, insisting that unless we push our bodies to extremes, we aren’t doing enough. Diet culture tells us that if our food choices and physical activity don’t lead to a slimmer physique, we’re failing, no matter how much we enjoy moving or how active we are.
In the pursuit of “health and wellness,” we have normalized dangerously unhealthy eating and exercise behaviors, and this is literally costing us lives. Children observe their mothers struggling to revert to pre-pregnancy sizes, and many continue to witness adults obsessing over body image and dieting throughout their formative years. They see us try fad diets, obsess over mirrors, and dread the arrival of summer—shaping their perceptions of body image and worth.
Dr. Thompson rightly questions why we’re surprised when children begin to restrict their food intake dangerously and fear being fat. They are simply mirroring our behaviors.
We also need to reassess how we relate to food. Adults often assign moral value to what we eat, sometimes unintentionally passing these ideas onto our kids. When we say, “I want a burger, but I’ll be good and choose a salad,” kids interpret that as “good people eat salads, not burgers.” This creates a dilemma: do they satisfy their hunger with “bad food” and feel guilty afterward, or do they ignore their hunger to uphold a flawed moral standard? Anorexia can take root in this environment. It’s no surprise that some kids prioritize perceived morality over their hunger needs.
This isn’t to say we shouldn’t be mindful of the foods we provide to our children. Many of us strive for a pantry stocked with nutritious options, and that’s commendable. We want our kids to eat well, and that requires effort. However, it’s our responsibility to encourage them to make healthy choices and enjoy movement without tying their self-worth to how they look in the end.
Diet culture makes a balanced approach to eating feel futile. Even if we primarily choose nutritious foods, if our bodies don’t fit the societal ideal, we’re led to believe we’ve failed in some way. This vicious cycle of guilt and unrealistic expectations contributes to the rise of a deadly psychiatric disorder among our children.
So, what can we do? We can focus on the joy of movement without mentioning appearance. Let’s celebrate fitness milestones based on strength or endurance rather than body size. Introducing children to a diverse array of foods broadens their horizons without assigning moral value to those foods.
It’s crucial to speak positively about our own bodies in front of our kids and to challenge body shaming whenever we encounter it. We must teach our children that kindness should be extended to individuals of all sizes.
Additionally, we should confront our own internalized biases regarding body size. It can be difficult to challenge our perceptions, but it’s essential. Anorexia doesn’t only manifest in those who are dangerously thin; it can affect anyone, even those in larger bodies, often hidden beneath the surface. Recognizing and addressing size bias is essential to combating anorexia, especially in our young ones.
Anorexia is more lethal than any other psychiatric disorder, and our children are not immune. It’s time to take a hard look at how we can promote healthy choices and active lifestyles without perpetuating harmful narratives about body size. For further insights, check out this post on home insemination kit, which discusses related topics, or refer to this authority on the subject, intracervicalinsemination.com. For additional information regarding fertility and home insemination, this resource is excellent.
In summary, we must strive to create an environment where children can appreciate their bodies and make healthy choices free from judgment and shame. By addressing societal pressures, reevaluating our food relationships, and advocating for kindness to all bodies, we can help mitigate the rise of anorexia and other harmful disorders in our youth.