We Are Not Looking After People with Eating Disorders - A Response to the BBC
An article published on the BBC on the 11th December detailed how researchers from Loughborough University have decided that it could be beneficial to label how much exercise it would take to walk off certain products - e.g x amount of steps for a chocolate bar.
Food is to be treasured and appreciated. I’d like you, reader, to bear in mind that I am giving my perspective here as a representative of those who have experienced disordered eating - feelings of guilt, shame and of greed all attributed to food, body image; to exercise. I acknowledge the complexity of the obesity crisis, but I can assure you that this would be an ignorant, insensitive and unhealthy method of intervention.
NO ONE should feel any sense of guilt for eating food. NO ONE. No matter on size, shape, weight: we eat to survive. Framing the act of eating as a crime makes exercise a punishment. It creates detrimental eating habits, a lack of self-worth and confidence. Having the label ‘this would take a 20 minute run to work off the calories consumed’ on a food item is enough to send an eating disorder sufferer into a state of anxiety or relapse. The implementation of the idea, therefore, that food is ‘not worth eating’ because it may take two hours of running to burn it off, will exacerbate triggers and other symptoms of eating disorders.
It’s bad enough that in the public domain certain foods are labelled or known as ‘naughty’ or ‘bad’ foods. When I was receiving treatment for my disordered eating, one my first challenges was to understand that no food sat on either side - no food is ‘good’ and no food is ‘bad’. Why should it be? Everything is about balance and moderation, consuming every food group. We need to educate people in more effective ways than to inflict guilt upon them for eating something they enjoy - introducing more information on nutrition and the benefits of physical activity, teaching children how to cook homemade meals, making fruits and vegetables affordable.
Food is energy, food is pleasure, food is taste. Food is not something to be constantly ‘worked off’. Food is balance, food is happiness, food is nourishment. Food is not about guilt or rewards or punishment.
Adding these labels to food items will cause more problems than it will solve, not increasing understanding but instead distorting what food means to each and every one of us. Each person has a different body, digests food differently, has a different metabolism - that’s the beauty of us. These labels teach us nothing of nutrients, and doesn’t promote the mental health benefits of exercise. All it does is make us feeling guilty, teaching us that we must always earn what we eat.
Written by Molly Gorman
Hello! I’m Molly, a 22-year old History grad. I’m passionate about mental health, travelling, being outside and making people feel good. I’m currently working part-time in a pharmacy at home in Derbyshire, and aspiring to move to London to work in a mental-health related role in the NHS.