Eating Disorders are More Dangerous than some Extra Fat: Reflections on EDAW
Hello! Sara Mackie, MSW here! It’s been a long time since I’ve created any content on the topic of eating disorders. However, it is Eating Disorder Awareness Week in Canada (Feb. 1-7) and I wanted to share some reflections on some common food and body myths that have been passionately realized through the transformation of my own eating disorder therapy practice.
A Lil’ Background
When I started Conscious Counselling and Wellness as a solo practictioner, my main clientele was folks struggling with/in recovery from eating disorders of all kinds. My experience as a survivor of “atypical” anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating disorder had propelled me toward graduate projects that studied this area of care, and propelled me toward eating disorder-specific trainings for my counselling therapy practice.
Although I’d never lost my passion for this area of practice, about 4 years in I recognized a pattern of individuation and pathologization within the field of ED care that was directly opposing everything I was learning as a budding trauma therapist. So for the last few years, many of my sessions have continued to explore body-image and relationships with food, but from a more intersectional, embodied, neuroscience and trauma-informed lens.
(Bla bla bla what the heck does that even mean… especially in this context?! I will explain below!).
Definition Station
Intersectional: A consideration of how multiple factors in relation to a person’s identity converge to create their specific circumstances. How might race, sex, gender, ability, disability, socioeconomic status, etc., influence someone’s relationship with food or body?
Embodied: An approach that considers how our nervous system and sensory experiences impact our thought, feelings and behaviours. In this field, it pertains to the acknowledgement that EDs can come from being disconnected from the body, or can cause disconnection from the body.
Neuroscience: The multidisciplinary study of the brain and nervous system.
Trauma-informed lens: An approach that acknowledges how situations that overwhelm our nervous system continue to impact our thoughts, feelings, and actions by keeping us stuck in fight or flight, fawn, or freeze, until it is processed. The acknowledgement that our brain impacts our environment, and our environment impacts our brain.
All of the above terms can be used differently in different contexts. These are simply definitions of how I’m using them here and in my practice.
So, why am I explaining all of this?
Firstly, I’m just a gal who loves a disclaimer!! Sue me!!
Secondly, to position myself to the reader about where I’m coming from. I have spent over 250 hours in various trainings, done hundreds of sessions with folks suffering with EDs, and have had over a decade of lived experience, which have all informed my stance on the following points:
MYTH BUSTING
An eating disorder is NOT a random, isolated, problem with your brain.
Yes, there is a genetic link.
Yes, something in the environment has to “switch” that gene on. Whether this be trauma, chronic stress, racism, sexism, or even going on a diet.
Your life experience AND sensory experience will impact how you interpret hunger, fullness, and the experience of eating or not eating.
Not all eating disorders are about, or start out with a focus on thinness.
An eating disorder may start with an aversion to a certain food texture or smell.
An eating disorder may start by restricting intake due to a cold or flu.
An eating disorder may start as an under-eating or over-eating coping mechanism to a life event.
DIETING is much more dangerous than having extra fat.
The restriction of calories generally leads to compensatory weight gain as your body fights to keep you alive (by slowing your metabolism).
Dieting can “switch on” the eating disorder gene for those who are susceptible, and having an eating disorder is largely more detrimental to health than obesity.
Anyway… I could go on and on but the part of my reflection I REALLY want to drive home is that
Eating disorders are COMPLEX and can and do happen to anyone.
Dieting can cause eating disorders.
The weight-loss industry (now under the guise of “wellness”) is on track to be worth over $500 BILLION dollars by 2030 and is an industry that benefits by keeping you stuck in a constant state of yo-yo dieting to continue making money. This industry keeps you scared.
Scared of food. Scared of food as comfort, joy, and a source of community.
Scared to trust your own body’s wise and ancient processes. Scared to feel hunger. Scared to feel too full.
source: unknown
While it is impossible to compare every single case of ailments caused by being underweight or overweight. It is important to remember that there are more factors at play in someone’s health than simply having more or less adipose tissue. While of COURSE having too much or too little adipose tissue (fat) has correlational links to developing other health conditions, the cultural obsession with achieving thinness through dieting and restriction as a mean to improve health is misguided. In fact, the academic literature shows being severely underweight is much worse for your health than being slightly overweight.
Where do we go from here?
In the words of Virginia Sole-Smith,
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my two-cents. I see you and appreciate you.
Who can help near me?
Aleo Collective - Eating Disorder Support Done Differently
References:
Cuntz, U., Quadflieg, N., & Voderholzer, U. (2025). Health risk and underweight. Journal Name, Volume(Issue), page range. https://doi.org/xxxxx
Memon, A. N., Gowda, A. S., Rallabhandi, B., Bidika, E., Fayyaz, H., Salib, M., & Cancarevic, I. (2020). Have our attempts to curb obesity done more harm than good? Cureus, 12(9), e10275. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.10275
Virginia Sole-Smith, The Eating Instinct: Food Culture, Body Image, and Guilt in America
