At 12 years old, I knew something about me was very wrong. I entered my symptoms into WebMD: won’t eat, can’t sleep, incessant headaches, always cold, and weight loss. The website quickly prompted me with a single diagnosis- anorexia.

Eight million Americans suffer from an eating disorder every year. Despite this harrowing statistic, many schools still do not include eating disorders in their nutrition curriculums. Instead, schools only discuss eating disorders in their mental health units. This approach fails to acknowledge that affirming positive body image and eating messages to students can prevent eating disorders in the first place, rather than just making students aware of the symptoms of eating disorders after it is already to late. 

Health curriculums designed to quell the obesity epidemic have engendered a culture of restrictive eating and obsessive exercise in America’s youth. These anti-fat programs further exacerbate the already high mortality rates of these diseases. 

I first realized the extent of this problem three years after my Anorexia diagnosis during my tenth-grade health education class. I was forced to spend over 2 hours every week listening to my health teacher rattle off every horrible generalization I had told my starving self when I was twelve years old. 

My state’s health curriculum consists of numerous nutrition units between fifth and tenth grade. All these programs emphasize high exercise; low carbohydrate, and fat intake; and eliminating processed foods. The tenth-grade health curriculum amplified these messages and offered dangerous suggestions about so-called “healthy eating”. One particularly horrible example of this was a documentary that compared eating to addiction and boldly asserted that consuming processed flour and sugar is as detrimental as snorting cocaine. Programs like this are shown to students all across the country to make them guilty about gaining weight and eating enough food to satisfy their appetites. The nutrition curriculum also includes a lesson on meal replacement bars. Teachers tell students that a bar should be between 200 and 450 calories to count as a full meal. This lessons recommends that students eat 600-1,350 calories every day. For reference, most scientists agree that consuming fewer than 1,200 calories a day for women and 1,400 calories a day for men constitutes starvation. Throughout the four-week nutrition class, my teacher never once discussed unhealthy weight loss techniques or eating disorders.

Properly teaching nutrition is about finding a balance between decreasing America’s troublingly high obesity rate and addressing the severe mental health issues that result from an unhealthy relationship with food-- a balance that most public schools have failed miserably in achieving. 

This July marked four years since I was diagnosed with anorexia. I was lucky enough to receive the help I needed before this disease stole my entire adolescence or potentially my life. However, millions of teenagers nation-wide are not as lucky as I am. American public schools need to quickly update their health curriculums to address the true dangers of eating disorders and better verse their guidance counselors in recognizing their signs-- before it is too late for their vulnerable students.

Sources: 

"Hungry for Change." Vimeo, uploaded by Foodmatters, 2012, vimeo.com/39562192.
     Accessed 5 January 2021.

Le, Trinh. "What's the Deal with Starvation Mode?" Myfitnesspal, Under Armor, 24
     June 2016, blog.myfitnesspal.com/ask-dietitian-whats-deal-starvation-mode/.
     Accessed 15 January 2021.

Mirasol Inc. Staff. "Eating Disorder Information and Statistics." Mirasol, 2020,
     www.mirasol.net/learning-center/eating-disorder-statistics.php. Accessed 20 
     January 2021.