When we talk about eating disorders and body image issues, the conversation often centers around a very specific, often privileged, demographic. However, this narrow focus overlooks a critical truth: these struggles are significantly prevalent, and often uniquely experienced, within disparaged communities and minimized in others that typically experience the most privelege. The fact of the matter is that this impacts everyone at some level or another. Whether you are supporting a loved one, working through it yourself, or even if you watch commercials and engage in social media. Bad information that is rooted in shame, stigma, and guilt overwhelms us each day with a flood of unhelpful nonsense masquerading as the newest health trend.

Hi! I’m Jennifer, and my ADHD goes hard when it comes to interdisciplinary pattern recognition. I am a decolonial anthropologist, culinary nutritionist, health + wellness coach, and a queer veteran. The past 15 years of my life have been dedicated to work and research in, analysis and critique of, and autoethnographic documentation of the wellness industrial complex. Basically, between my diagnoses and my degrees, there are too many letters behind my name. But the expertise that I have is useless without your experience. Human sciences that don’t center humans are inhumane. This mini spiel is the prologue to this post because I want you all to know this is not some AI copy + paste, brief systemic review summary thrown on a website, or a whim – this is a central component of my thesis, dissertation, clinical supervision practice, professional ethos, my social media and community outreach work, and it boils down to a really incredibly nefarious systemic ethics issue. So on one hand, it may seem intense, but on the other, that intensity is how hard I’ll go to bat for you when it comes to getting the care you need and deserve.

YOU ARE THE ONLY PERSON CAPABLE OF BEING YOU.

DON’T LET SOME INTERNET MEAN GIRLS TELL YOU WHO YOU ARE.

Let’s dive in… this is a lot – take what you can right now and reach out with questions.

Five things to keep in mind, despite what the media constantly shoves down our throats:

1. Skinny is not inherently healthy, and fat (as a reclaimed, empowered word, not in a judgmental way) is not inherently unhealthy.
2. The war on obesity was not about health; it was about systemic control and money.
3. Body composition and human biological variation are validated scientific concepts intentionally dismissed in the medical community for the sake of ease, and you guessed it… more money.
4. Your health is far more important than any aesthetic trend.
5. Diet culture is just a eugenics rebrand with influencers and laxative teas instead of phrenology.

The Invisible Epidemic: Why We Don’t See What We See

Two of the biggest challenges are underdiagnosis and underrepresentation. For far too long, the stereotype of what an eating disorder “looks like” has prevented individuals from receiving the help they desperately need. This is especially harmful in already disparaged, oppressed, and marginalized communities. These, unfortunately, widespread misunderstandings are rooted in capitalism, resulting in epigenetically stored trauma, perpetuated by ongoing propaganda. Some specific examples for added context:

• Cultural Misunderstandings: Diagnostic criteria and treatment approaches are often rooted in Western, Eurocentric perspectives, which include binary thinking, failing to account for diverse cultural norms around food, body, identity, belief, and mental health. All too often compounded by the Dunning-Kruger effect, even in the most highly socially regarded professions. And medical gaslighting. Research that informs practice is bias in premise and funding… It’s a whole mess out here! We are going to keep pulling the thread… here we go!

• Systemic Barriers: Lack of access to cultural humility, respect, and competence in healthcare providers, systemically driven financial constraints, and distrust in medical institutions are significant hurdles. However, these hurdles aren’t just to access, they are also to representative research, as a chronic symptom of centuries of systemic inequities and erasure. This also applies to the use of Traditional Medicine, Ancient Wisdom, and Indigenous Healing, as these are roots of modernly reduced in application policies and protocols within a corrupt medical system that are often conflated with what many call “hippie woo woo” or “new age”. I just call it media driven capitalism. There is so much miscommunication and misappropriation that assuming the two are the same is an unfortunately easy mistake to make. Mass media is the worst.

• Stigma: Mental health stigma is often amplified in disparaged communities, making it even harder to seek help for issues like eating disorders. This stigma is also rooted in shame and guilt which wreck your nervous system. When we consider the comorbidity of dismissed environmental etiology (anthropology calls them obesogenic environments) and the 11 dimensions of wellness and how they infinitely interact with the 11 bodily systems 24:7:365 – we have missed the mark  way too many times. It’s all connected, and we are so disconnected from ourselves and each other that of course, we need to talk about our relationship with food! Historical pop culture has been an absolute propaganda-infested nightmare for decades and an entire ethnocultural annihilation for centuries before that… This is deep, and we have to heal collectively at a DNA level.

Unpacking the Stats: A Glimpse into the Reality

While comprehensive data is still evolving, consistent existing research paints a clear picture:

• Racial and Ethnic studies indicate that eating disorders are more prevalent among the global majority, which are the most systemically oppressed communities. For example, research has shown that Hispanic adolescents are significantly more likely to experience bulimia nervosa. Black teenagers are also at a higher risk of developing disordered eating behaviors+. Access to Halal, Kosher, Ahimsa, and other cultural spiritual practice-friendly resources is limited in many areas. The entire topic of food deserts and “moral desserts” are an absolute must consideration. For BIPOC individuals, body image can be impacted by experiences of racism, colorism, and the pervasive presence of Eurocentric beauty standards. The pressure to assimilate or to be seen as “acceptable” can lead to a rejection of one’s natural body and features, especially as they go in and out of trending in the media.

• Members of the LGBTQIA2S+ community, particularly transgender individuals, face staggering rates of eating disorders and body dissatisfaction and dysmorphia, self-harm and hatred, and deeply internalized biopsychosocial stigmas. Transgender college students are four times more likely to report an eating disorder diagnosis than their cisgender counterparts. The pressure to conform to gender norms or body ideals, coupled with experiences of discrimination and marginalization, are significant contributors. A decolonial perspective is imperative as the binary has been a form of legal genocide since as far back as at least the Roman Empire… It’s an entire historical disgrace of a timeline. OF COURSE WE ARE TRAUMATIZED. The LGBTQ+ community often grapples with unique body image challenges. For transgender individuals, gender dysphoria can be a powerful driver of disordered eating as they attempt to modify their bodies to align with their gender identity. Homophobia and the pressure to conform to specific ideals within or outside the community can also contribute.

• Socioeconomic status, poverty and food insecurity can paradoxically contribute to disordered eating (remember obesogenic environments?). The unpredictable access to food can lead to cycles of restriction and binging, and the stress of financial hardship can exacerbate mental health struggles, including body image issues. Not to mention the casual use of residential schools as the foundational research for the field of nutrition, which included starvation, sterilization, and torture in the name of Scientism. So we aren’t off to an ethical start. But after centuries of religio-ethnic cleansing as the sociocultural predecessor, it’s a disgustingly unsurprising place to be. Stop trying to be this hyper faux woke clean girl influencer like you see online and talk to an actual nutritionist or respected cultural medicine practitioner. Remember, influencers are toxicity in good lighting edited by Photoshop, not reality.

The link between eating disorders and body image issues in strategically disparaged communities is inextricably tied to experiences of oppression, discrimination, and systemic injustice. It is eminently crucial to remember that individuals often belong to multiple disparaged groups. A Black queer woman, for example, faces the compounded pressures and traumas of racism, sexism, homophobia, misognoir, all of which can profoundly impact her relationship with her body and food, and are common in neurodivergent communities, which often also experience physical disabilities. See how easily that snowballs? Your experience is valid. By understanding the statistics and the deep-seated connections between systemic oppression, body image, and eating disorders, we can begin to build a more equitable and supportive world where everyone has the opportunity to heal and thrive.

This is not to say that these communities are the only ones impacted. Children and adults alike, of all ethnicities, identities, and social statuses experience eating disorders, disordered eating patterns, and unhealthy relationships with food. Young girls of all kinds experience pressure from the media, at school from peers and adults alike, to be copies of the grown celebrities who are more plastic than person. All too often, it happens in the home, also as a result of internalized ideas that sometimes unintentionally get put onto kids. This is something we all need to work on together. Eating disorders and unhealthy relationships with food manifest differently in men and boys as well, and they are usually dismissed or normalized through gym culture. Consumption-based disorders are more stigmatized than restriction-based ones only contributing to the problem. Statistically, no matter how it is broken down demographically, this issue is the flame that is constantly being fanned by diet, gym, and wellness culture media that is far too widespread and simultaneously under-addressed. You don’t have to have a diagnosis to work on your relationship with food or body image, or to reach out for help.

-Jennifer Sare; Health, Wellness & Nutrition

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