Catch it, bin it, kill it. Coughs and sneezes spread diseases. Come winter, you can’t miss public health campaigns to halt the spread of cold and flu germs. The messages are clear and simple, inarguable. They aim to keep people well and save the lives of the more vulnerable.
Another form of sickness has been on my mind lately. One that can cause mild and temporary ill health, severe and multiple problems or, in extreme cases, death. Eating disorders affect an estimated 1.6million people in the UK, according to the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. They are spread not by germs but by toxic ideas and feelings.
So where are the public health interventions for eating disorders? Anorexia has the highest death rate of any psychiatric condition and inflicts huge misery on sufferers. The highest-risk group is clear: girls and young women. The causes are not clear-cut, but a desire to starve oneself does not arise in individuals spontaneously. Social pressures and expectations have an influence. There are so many negative influences to contend with, the public health camp needs to find a positive counterargument and shout it loudly. A concerted effort to promote healthy eating, positive body image and assertiveness in secondary schools could surely save oceans of anguish, not to mention NHS £££.
Such a campaign should not just target prevention of severe clinical cases but also to shift attitudes more widely. For every person diagnosed with an eating disorder, there must be ten who succumb to fad diets and unhealthy notions about food. Otherwise sane people “detox” on smoothies and seeds in January, then hit the steak in July to attain an acceptable level of slimness for the beach. When they inevitably lapse and have a slice of chocolate fudge cake, they feel bad about themselves. Such weight-loss schemes are entirely unsupported by any scientific evidence on healthy eating, yet form the backbone of women’s magazines and newspaper supplements.
A friend of mine who struggled with bulimia in her teens said holding onto a healthy relationship with food meant being an outsider. Views she expressed such as “you don’t have to be thin to be attractive” met widespread shock and horror from university coursemates. She is a strong-minded person and certainly no slave to convention in any part of her life, but it is not hard to imagine an eating disorder sufferer relapsing when faced with such unhelpful attitudes.
I generally avoid such mags but while waiting at the hairdressers recently I flicked through Closer. On every page was some comment on a female celebrity’s appearance: this one is still carrying some baby weight; the other has got very thin since her divorce; look, bingo wings, on a famous person! Perhaps we are supposed to be reassured that, when not professionally made up and airbrushed, these public people are just like us. In some way, it might counterbalance the impossibly perfect depictions in other glossies, such as Grazia’s digital manipulations to make Kate Middleton look thinner (as if she wasn’t already testing the lower boundaries of a healthy weight). [By the by, why is airbrushing still unregulated? It would be so simple to require magazines to label photoshopped images and end this harmful deception. No lesser forces than the Lib Dems and the Girl Guides have called for it! Oh, right…] But my overwhelming response is: can’t we find something more interesting to talk about? I’m not saying that Closer is particularly culpable, most magazines aimed at women are fixated on weight and appearance. I could rant on, but let’s get back to the point.
There are many ways to get screwed up around food and body image. There are many images and voices out there giving a distorted sense of what is normal and beautiful. There is one simple way of fighting back: eat well and accept yourself.
After Jamie Oliver, healthy food is on the school dinner menu. Young people need to hear a consistent message that if they eat regular, balanced meals, it will give them the energy and strength to do the things they love.
Eat it, taste it, love it.
