The Risks and Benefits of the Online Focus on Food and Weight

The changes in eating disorder treatment discussed in the last post also reflect changes in the ideas of food and eating for a younger generation.

The flood of TikToks by people with and without eating disorders reinforces the idea that food choices and identity are almost synonymous. Normalization of the link between food and self is a sign of how society has begun to blur eating disorders and uses food as a sense of identity.

Rather than using these tools to find a new societal direction, they seem to have solidified the idea that food and weight are paramount in our society, thereby encouraging dieting and the risk of developing an eating disorder. 

The combination of social media and our isolation caused by the pandemic has only accelerated the chatter about food, body and identity. Body positive movements continue to grow so all the messages isn’t negative. However, there are two central dangers to this trend.

The first is that true, serious eating disorders are marginalized more and more. There is still a significant percentage of people who seek help who have serious eating disorders. These illnesses need to be diagnosed and treated. Experienced clinicians can differentiate between identity struggles around food and eating disorders. Appropriate treatment is critical early for these patients to have a chance to get better. It’s necessary that the growing trend around identity and food doesn’t stop these people from getting help.

The second critical change is that more isolated younger people see food and weight as a way to grow a sense of self and identity. Most of them won’t develop eating disorders, but they will be misled into believing that food and weight are appropriate and effective ways to grow psychologically and emotionally.

The explosion of content online about food, weight and eating disorders can consume much of one’s day and fill the space left by loneliness and isolation. The messaging is powerful and the communities strong and vocal. The new online treatment programs also make it seem that speaking up about food and weight is a worthy goal in and of itself. 

Certainly there is value in countering the food, diet and exercise industries but not at the expense of one’s own development.

Part of what needs to be communicated to younger people is that escaping food and weight does not mean solely jumping on the bandwagon. It also means leaving that world behind in order to focus on personal growth in all aspects of life and to find meaning elsewhere outside the inevitable emptiness that remains when food, weight and eating disorders are the focus. Recovery is a means to an end and that end is living life.