The pandemic has ushered in a wave of poverty and unemployment wherein individuals are having a tough time accessing simple food resources and meeting nutritional standards. On the opposite spectrum, eating disorders are on the rise and have affected a lot of individuals. Even though statistics on the subject aren’t clear, a recent survey in the US has found that calls to the National Eating Disorders Association are up by 70-80%. Though global and especially Indian data on the subject are unclear, there are still ways to understand the complex world of diet culture and how it may be promoting eating disorders in individuals, especially during the pandemic.
Now, a lot of us might be unfamiliar with eating disorders. The most common types are anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. Apart from these categorizations, exist several extremely difficult disordered eating habits that may be lethal. Lethal, because eating disorders have the highest mortality rate among all mental illnesses. This certainly means that eating disorders are concerning, but at most times, these patterns of disordered eating are celebrated and awarded in society. Every individual who has lost weight to gain a more acceptable body structure is congratulated on their achievement. This is not just an illness that affects women, but also men, often in ways that are traditionally different.
The media and the fashion industry play grave roles in these problematic behaviors that are projected onto and then expected of people. Go into any shop and the sample sizing of the clothing is intimidating and bothersome. The size chart is a point of contention, there are daggers your way if you don’t fit into the more “acceptable” sizes. It seems that “fitting in” - quite literally, is the motive that the fashion industry is after. These sizing charts and clothing sizes then make you wonder as to what is wrong, that maybe you should try out diet pills or search for exercise materials. After all, you are doing this for a “greater purpose”, one where your “healthy body” can fit into the sizes they want you to fit in.
The pandemic has obviously reduced this need to be seen as glorious or desirable and has minimized the shame that clothing store sizes cause. It has instead bombarded us with images of things that would push us to take drastic steps to “maintain” our bodies. Through the rise of TikTok, one can map out the serious body dysmorphia the app promotes by showing the perfect bodies of people who are living in the middle of a pandemic. Every search on the internet about dietary habits, ushers in a host of videos from all over social media networks, advising us on losing weight. “How to lose quarantine weight” was one of the leading searches. Transformation videos that gave us simplistic goals of a flat stomach in 30 days and diet tips that help you lose weight are promoting a disordered structure of eating as well.
A body going through a deadly pandemic that needs immunity and protection is now being put through the soul-crushing expectation of looking “better than ever” after the lockdown ends. Body transformation videos are nothing new. But somehow, the worst thing that can happen to you during these important lockdowns is the fear of gaining weight, which then adds on to the stress experienced during such trying times.
Quarantine stress had triggered many of us into old traumas, some coped with eating comfort food, while others with exercising or simple hobbies like singing and painting. None of these latter coping mechanisms were under scrutiny or shamed for, like turning to food for comfort. As if gaining weight was the end of the world, while quite literally the world was crumbling outside our windows.
In recent years, the diet culture has been more subtle than ever before. It promotes the dangerous behaviours that lead to eating disorders through the very positive act of “self-love”. While proponents of it have been vocally trying to integrate larger bodies such as that of Lizzo into the mix and make her the face of the movement, there has been a very deplorable usage of the term to further promote diet culture. “Self-love” is now used to shame people into changing their bodies into a form that they would come to love. But the issue is that everyone with an eating disorder has eventually learned that once the fixation starts, nothing will be good enough. And to say that loving ourselves is as easy as changing the way we look is shallow, to begin with. Ideally, we should love ourselves, no matter what.
The pandemic eating disorder crisis may never be fully understood thanks to the other extremely difficult problems surrounding it. But while the mental health of people has been affected everywhere, it’s important to know that an eating disorder relapse or the beginning of one is not a “first world issue” and they shouldn’t “just eat because others don’t get food”. The intention behind calling out such behaviors and focusing on them is to make people realize that categorizing suffering wouldn’t change the fact that it is, in fact, suffering. Eating disorders cannot be treated unless society is emptied of its weight-loss narrative.
The pandemic with its host of issues has left a lot of stress on the human mind. It is okay to have reacted to the pandemic in any form that people have deemed comfortable. But now, it has been a year into the pandemic and we have to let go of these dangerous coping mechanisms and look out for ourselves. Something that has been reiterated a lot in these times was to take care of oneself before extending a helping hand.
If anything, COVID-19 has taught us to take care of ourselves. It is time we take care of our mental health, say no to the diet blogs and toxic diet culture that promote harmful behaviors in the name of maintaining one’s figure. I would like to paraphrase something I saw on the healthy side of TikTok that believes in a healthy mind and body - “Your body saved you from this deadly pandemic, and you still hate it? Say thank you instead.”
(cover image courtesy: wired.com)
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