To our education system, please reform health class…and advocate for mental health

I got serious beef with health class…what is taught and how it is taught…

First of all, I want to say that when I took health class freshmen year of high school, I had not yet developed an eating disorder (ED). But let me say that if I had had an eating disorder then, I would have had to be exempt from health class, where nutrition, exercise, eating disorders (read: only stereotypical anorexia), and weight management are discussed. Because all of these topics are severely harmful to someone with an eating disorder—and even someone without one. Unfortunately, health class has become an instigator for disordered eating habits and an unhealthy relationship with food and your body.

Many health classes utilize eating disorder rhetoric, therefore propagating disordered eating behaviors and an eating disorder mindset. Health class should never trigger anyone with an eating disorder—is that ‘health’ then? No, that is diet culture. And diet culture is infiltrating our educational systems, negatively impacting the physical and mental health of our youth.

Health class should not be mirroring an eating disorder—ever. Eating disorders are severely harmful to everyone. You see, the tricky aspect of eating disorders is that they do not have a ‘look.’ There is no definite way to know who has a predisposition for an ED, or who has an ED. Health class could set off an ED in someone who is already susceptible. It could also trigger someone who hasn’t said anything about their illness and hasn’t been exempt, or someone who did speak up and wasn’t allowed to be exempt.

Although it may not seem like it from the outside, health class is like a conveyer belt for diet culture to spread its harmful messages. It’s raising an entire generation of kids who think that they need to be smaller and that they need to diet and lose weight in order to be healthy; it’s their appearance and “healthy” habits that make them worthy. This is all BS and we must do better.

Why are we being taught to count calories in health class? Counting calories can lead to a very disordered and challenging relationship with food and oneself! Why are we being taught that “less is better?” Low calorie diets are very unsustainable and will deteriorate your health and slow down vital bodily functions. Why are we being told that fat is bad? Body fat is necessary for survival; it regulates body temperature, absorbs vitamins and minerals, and acts as a crucial structure for our cells, to name a few! Why did we weigh ourselves over a month+ period of time? Health is SO MUCH MORE than a number on a scale! Health is not a number, nor a size. And why are we only learning about stereotypical anorexia, portrayed as a young heterosexual, cis white girl who starts deliberately losing weight to fit society’s unrealistic beauty standards because she saw supermodels in some magazine?? Eating disorders have a whole spectrum, and they DO NOT discriminate against gender, sex, age, ethnicity, race, etc.

Please, it is pertinent that we reform health class and change the curriculum. We should instead be educating our youth on: food freedom and intuitive eating principles, health-at-every-size (HAES), the whole eating disorder spectrum, and body neutrality, to name a few. We should be having conversations around ending the stigmatization of mental health and ableism, as well as bringing awareness to and fighting against our fat-phobic society with its unattainable and unrealistic beauty standards. And, of course, we must do better at advocating for diversity and inclusion in our healthcare systems.

It’s time to change what is being taught in our schools, and NOW. We cannot wait any longer…