Andrea Flores Edinburg– Local dietician Veronica Gonzalez talks about how eating disorders can stem from current concepts such as pretty privilege and glow-up culture, a psychologist discusses ways to get help.
The National Eating Disorders Association states that 28.8 million Americans will have an eating disorder in their lifetime.
To address this issue, the U.S Department of Health and Human Services Office on Women’s Health observes eating disorder awareness week annually.
UTRGV Counseling Center intern Melissa Diaz is one of the people running the body project, a four session program created as a preventive method for eating disorders and to spread body positivity among the student population.
The group discusses how society’s standards sometimes pressure women into looking a certain way, leading to negative eating habits and possible disorders.
“This coming week, we’ll do a roleplay, where one of us will say, ‘Oh,‘I really need to lose some weight to fit into my bathing suit for spring break, so, I’m going to stop eating breakfast and dinner,’” Diaz said. “Then the other participant would talk to them in a roleplay and kind of explain, like, ‘Oh, you know, what makes you think you need to do that?’”
Nurturing Nutrition and Wellness dietician Veronica Gonzalez highlighted how words of endearment revolving on body image are embedded into hispanic culture, which tend to have a negative effect on people’s mental health.
Gonzalez added that pretty privilege is focused on a standardized eurocentric image, and how glow-up culture is all about perfectionism.
“Disordered eating and eating disorders, they all serve a purpose in someone’s life,” she said. “And it’s sometimes to gain control of something that someone cannot control. And in this case, these glow up series they’re trying to control their perfect outcome.”
The Body Project is open to all students with its next group session available after spring break.
