Disordered eating is no easy thing to talk about. Countless numbers of people have had a run-in with it sometime in their lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s an uncomfortable subject matter. Not only that, it\u2019s personal. And, more often than not, it\u2019s misunderstood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMost women I know have struggled with some form of disordered eating<\/em>,\u201d says Emmeline Clein<\/strong>, the author of Dead Weight: Essays on Hunger and Harm<\/em>, on the Mindvalley Book Club with Kristina M\u00e4nd-Lakhiani.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She knows this well because she, too, has walked the walk. She\u2019s lugged around the same \u201cdead weight\u201d\u2014the burden of impossible expectations that society dumps on us, especially us women, without a second thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Her book, thank goodness, is a bold and absolutely necessary<\/em> wake-up call. And it pushes us to reevaluate beauty, health, and the price we have to pay to meet such unrealistic standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s time to lighten our load, ladies. And Emmeline is showing us how to do just that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Diet culture may grab attention with shocking headlines about eating disorders, and rightfully so. However, there\u2019s another issue that Emmeline insists we focus on\u2014disordered eating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It shares the same ground as anorexia and bulimia. However, unlike the two nervosas, it often manifests as unhealthy habits that fly under the radar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s really just any type of kind of pathological relationship with food or your body and what consuming food has meant for the way your body is received by society<\/em>,\u201d Emmeline explains. That includes (but is not limited to):<\/p>\n\n\n\n These behaviors have become so normal, they\u2019re practically the 11th commandment: Thou shalt constantly obsess over thy food and body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our mainstream media is still really reinforcing an incredibly dangerous beauty ideal, incredibly rigid ideas of discipline and exercise.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n This twisted gospel is everywhere<\/em>\u2014from social media influencers promoting \u201cwellness\u201d trends<\/a> and \u201cthinspiration\u201d content to doctors stubbornly sticking to the Body Mass Index (BMI) as if it\u2019s the holy grail of health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the message they\u2019re sending is clear: smaller bodies are better bodies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Research has found that more people are developing disordered eating attitudes and behaviors<\/a>. And the scary part is, they\u2019re starting at younger ages\u2014as early as 12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Capitalism, misogyny, and racism are the culprits, according to Emmeline. \u201cOur mainstream media is still really reinforcing an incredibly dangerous beauty ideal, incredibly rigid ideas of discipline and exercise<\/em>.\u201d And it ultimately creates a suffocating environment where disordered eating thrives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To make matters worse, we\u2019ve been sold on this bogus idea that there\u2019s a clear line between \u201chealthy\u201d diets and eating disorders. But in reality, what\u2019s praised as \u201cdisciplined dieting\u201d can be just as harmful as a full-blown eating disorder<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Take orthorexia, for example\u2014an unhealthy fixation on eating only \u201chealthy\u201d foods. While it might seem like a good thing on the surface, this obsession can spiral into a negative mind-body connection<\/a> that can disrupt your life and harm your well-being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The fact of the matter is, when the focus is solely on matching a certain body size, there\u2019s a higher risk of falling into a cycle of extreme dieting, bingeing, and self-loathing. And more often than not, we fail to recognize that it takes a toll on our mental and physical health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dead Weight<\/em> is rooted in Emmeline\u2019s own painful experiences. While it\u2019s not centered around it, it\u2019s clear that her own struggles, plus the suffering she witnessed in others like her, are what fueled her passion to tackle this issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a society, we care more about women being beautiful than we care about their lives.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n She touches on a lot of important points in her book, but these are the main ones she highlights in her sitdown with Kristina:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPeople with eating disorders have been so, like, condescended to and mocked and maligned by the medical establishment<\/em>,\u201d Emmeline says. \u201cSo I wanted to level with people who have struggled with this and say, you know, \u2018You\u2019re not crazy. In fact, you\u2019re really smart, and I understand why you\u2019re doing what you\u2019re doing, but I think it\u2019s really hurting yourself and other women<\/em>.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She\u2019s sparking the conversation, for sure. And by doing so, she hopes to help women break free from harmful cycles and question the damaging stories so many of us have believed for so long.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBeauty standards and diet culture: The fuel of disordered eating<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Who\u2019s to blame?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Why Emmeline Clein is exposing the dead weight of diet culture<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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