Our Culture of Food, Weight and Exercise

People who have an eating disorder often want to know why. Even though there is much more to recovery than understanding what’s behind your unhealthy eating behaviors, piecing together the different factors may give you some helpful insights.

On the website of the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA), they present four sets of factors that may contribute to eating disorders. In previous articles I wrote about the psychological, interpersonal and biological factors, and today we will discuss the social/cultural factors.

Whether you’re glancing at the magazines displayed near the checkout line at the grocery store, listening to commentary about people walking the red carpet at the Academy Awards or just having a casual conversation with friends or work colleagues, you’ll hear people being judged based on their physical appearance.

This is such a small way of looking at things, and doesn’t put any value on all the other more important qualities that make us who we are.

Then there is the family culture. There can be a family of triathletes who are all into sports and value physical coordination. There can be a family who are very tuned in to physical appearance and only appreciate the latest fashions. There can be a family who are very sedentary and watch a lot of TV. Whichever culture you’re raised in has an impact on your views about eating, weight and exercise.

When my father was diagnosed with high blood pressure, the whole family got swept up into his efforts to lose weight and get fit. So my family culture became thinness. I had an aunt who was on a well-known diet program for 45 years. When people greeted each other, the first topic wasn’t always how people were, it was who had lost or gained the most weight, and how.

As you recover from disordered eating, keep in mind that the cultures around you are not necessarily changing. It’s a matter of being able to be present with oneself and finding fulfillment in your vision of recovery, things like being healthy, happy and comfortable in your body.