How To Talk To Teens About Food Without Triggering Eating Disorders

Is it possible to teach about food and nutrition without making people feel bad about themselves or what they eat?

Hanging out at #SHAPEBaltimore with SHAPE America President Dr. Cara Grant

New Conversations About Nutrition

Hi readers! I was at SHAPE America’s national convention last week in Baltimore, and there was a lot of talk about food - in particular, about how teachers and parents can talk about food and nutrition without making young people feel bad about their bodies or about what they are eating.

Educators shared a lot of concerns that the way they’ve done things in the past inadvertently encouraged body shame or even triggered eating disorders. Several cited the work of eating disorder prevention specialists like

Charlotte Markey

,

Oona Hanson

, and

Zoë Bisbing, LCSW

, who have spoken up about how ‘Healthy eating’ curriculums can do more harm than good.

I also heard people say how influential

Virginia Sole-Smith

’s book Fat Talk and

Cait O’Connor

’s Ditching Diet Culture at School toolkit have been on their thinking.

When I saw that Sole-Smith had given a ringing endorsement to a new set of nutrition lessons - the “Let’s Eat” curriculum from Be Real USA - I knew I had to check it out. Here’s what I learned from Be Real at their conference session, where they talked about these lessons and how they were developed.

“The Let’s Eat Toolkit is really fantastic. This is exactly the type of curriculum material I’m hoping to get on my daughter’s school district’s radar!”
-

Virginia Sole-Smith

Introducing “Let’s Eat”

From Be Real: As adults, it's been confusing over the last decades to know how and what to eat. We've experienced the fat-free prescriptions of 40 years ago, followed by low-carb advice for the last 20 years, to today's current meal skipping protocols. Many of us know a lot about nutrition and how we "should" eat, but we are unhappy with our bodies. We are disappointed with ourselves because we believe we don't have the "willpower" to look like the appearance ideals of the day. Most of us haven't yet embraced what science knows, that body size is up to 90% determined by genetics and other factors beyond our control.

The experiences of the "adults in the room" (us--teachers and parents) over the last 50 years along with our society's obsession with body size and weight loss ("diet culture") has produced an adult population that can be painfully uncomfortable in our own skin. And when we feel negatively about ourselves, of course, it negatively affects how we teach young people to eat and live happily in their own bodies.

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This post-it is one of the innovative tools in the “Let’s Eat” curriculum

We Know What Doesn’t Work

Educators want clear, research-backed advice helping teach children what and how much to eat. But from years of experience teaching children, we know it's not that simple. The one thing we know for sure is we need something different from what we are doing today. We have almost 70% of adolescent girls and 45% of adolescent boys restricting their food intake to become smaller or more buff; with 75% of adolescents suffering body image distress ; and disordered eating and eating disorders at an all-time high.

Recent studies have found school "healthy eating" education may actually be part of the problem with a potential to "trigger eating disorders." The field has known for years that some of the usual "healthy eating" curriculum practices are problematic. This includes much of what is currently found in school health textbooks on "healthy eating":

• Talking about "good and bad" foods

• Calorie counting

• Using food logs

• Weighing students in school

All of these common, "healthy eating" discussions can harm young people's body image and mental health. In addition, we know that "forbidding" certain foods and food groups is harmful, making the forbidden food even more appealing and causing young people to feel "out of control" around food.

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Our Approach: Tuned-In Eating

We teach Tuned-In Eating with expertise from: public health specialists, dietitians, eating disorder experts, medical doctors, and researchers. We give students the guidance they need to to notice their body's hunger and fullness cues to decide what and how much to eat. We teach young people to fuel themselves for their lives and enjoy their food by incorporating Tuned-In eating skills with a gentle focus on nutrition. These research-based lessons are culturally-inclusive tools that are designed not only for students' physical health, but for their mental well-being.

Part 1: Introduction

In the Introduction students learn what is and what isn’t Tuned-In Eating. They learn why it is an important part of a personal, self-care and body confidence. Students learn about food insecurity.

Part 2: Body Cues

Tuned-in Eating involves discovering eating guidelines (not rules) for each student. Students do this by getting curious and asking themselves “Food & You” questions and experimenting around food. They are the experts on their own bodies. Students learn how to identify when they are hungry and when they are satisfied.

Part 3: Reasons We Eat: Nutrition

In Part 3, students will learn that we eat for many different reasons. These reason include eating for nutrition & energy, satisfaction, connection, and pleasure. We discuss why eating nutritious food is important to keep our bodies running well. We do an exercise that has student fuel themselves for their day with their own schedule and the nutrition information discussed in class.

Part 4: Reasons We Eat: Pleasure & Community

Students tune into foods they enjoy and what they like about them. They have a Food Explorations exercise about food taste and texture, which is part of Tuned-In Eating. Students talk about how they eat in their own communities and have an opportunity to share what they eat and how they celebrate in their homes, coming from different cultures.

The “Let’s Eat” lessons are free - to get access to our program simply watch our professional development video and take the 11-question quiz. When you get 9 or more correct on the quiz, the material will pop right up!

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Come See Me At These Bay Area Events!

I’ll be talking about raising teenagers with

Ruth Whippman

, the author of the terrific book “Boy Mom,” at this special event on Monday, April 14th. It's a fundraiser for the Berkeley High School Development Group, which supports Berkeley High teachers with funding to do special projects or do enrichment activities.

Tickets include delicious food, drinks donated by local businesses, entertainment by members of the Berkeley High Jazz Band, and a thought-provoking conversation. Register here.

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One of the joys of my life is singing in a men’s choir, the Conspiracy of Beards. We perform original arrangements of the songs of Leonard Cohen, and we’re hosting a free show in San Francisco on Sunday, April 13. Join us!

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