You are more than what you eat: How does Asian American culture affect eating disorders and body image?
It’s estimated that 1 in 10 people will experience an eating disorder in their lifetime, affecting people of every age, race, size, gender, sexual orientation, and ability. This represents about 30 million Americans… that’s staggering! Yet, 90% will not get the personalized care they deserve.
Contents
What is an eating disorder?
How do eating disorders affect women?
What role does cultural influence play on eating disorders?
4 ways to start recovering from eating disorders
What is an eating disorder?
Eating disorders are defined as the persistent disturbance of eating or eating-related behaviors that result in an altered consumption or absorption of food intake. The different types include anorexia bulimia, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID), pica, other specified feeding or eating disorder (OSFED), orthorexia, and diabulimia.
These disorders can have drastic effects on your physical health and psychosocial functioning. Unfortunately, some of the behaviors involved in eating disorders are normalized in our culture. They may show up in subtle ways, such as having constant thoughts about eating or criticizing your body, eliminating food groups by drastically experimenting with diets, over-exercising to feel better about what you’ve eaten, and setting rigid rules set around food. These adjustments may be so common in mainstream culture that they don’t necessarily ring alarm bells. In individuals with eating disorders, these can become more extreme, and cause difficulty eating in front of others and avoidance of activities due to feeling shame about your body.
How do eating disorders affect women?
In honor of Women’s History Month in March, we wanted to highlight how these features may show-up in people who identify as women.. Women account for approximately 85% of diagnosed patients with anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa, and as many as 20 million women in the US will develop an eating disorder over the course of their lifetime.
In particular, Asian women often experience confusing and contradictory instructions from family when it comes to eating and body image. During holidays or festive reunions, Asian aunties and uncles will pile food onto people’s plates and complain that they’re “too skinny” or “haven’t been eating enough”... only to criticize them a week later for being “too fat” or “too lazy.” To add insult to injury, these chides may even be paired with jabs like “no one will date you if you’re too big” or “how can you find a husband if you aren’t thin?”
This speaks to the significant pressure placed on women to conform with societal expectations, which is difficult considering the changes in brain chemistry and hormone levels as women’s bodies change from puberty to menopause and beyond. Therefore, when we celebrate Women’s History Month, we should also challenge these stereotypes and celebrate women’s bodies for what they are, not what they should be.
How do eating disorders affect the Asian American community?
One example of how this manifests itself in Asian communities is seen in the rising popularity of Korean media and entertainment. K-pop, K-dramas, and K-beauty standards feature celebrities with slender frames who glide effortlessly in music videos and TV shows with blemish-free and radiant skin. However, the hidden message this sends audiences is “you can only be cool if you’re fit and thin.” The “A4Waist” challenge was another modern day phenomenon which pressured the Asian community, particularly Asian women, to be dangerously thin. In this challenge, a sheet of paper was held in front of a woman’s waist to prove that they were smaller than the 8-inch width.
In doing so, these trends reinforce harmful concepts in Asian American communities that thinness is a key element of attractiveness, leading to what the National Eating Disorder Association terms “the sociocultural idealization of thinness.” This generalization can extend even further than attractiveness by equating thinness with higher status and power. In an attempt to achieve this idealized body type and status, Asian Americans may be driven to eating disorders as a form of control and way to prove ourselves.
Another way in which eating disorders affect our community is when traditional immigrant dishes are dismissed as “unhealthy diets.” Rice, for example, is a staple in many Asian diets, yet it has developed a reputation as being “unhealthy” with those who preach low-carb diets. Never mind that Japan is one of the world’s few “Blue Zones” where people live longer than average – and rice is often served for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Yet, Asian Americans end up swapping out beloved dishes for whole wheat substitutes or foods that would’ve been wildly foreign to our ancestors (chia seeds? Avocado? quinoa?)
As food influencer Lensa’s Kitchen said in one video,"I never felt like I could eat the cultural foods I grew up on and also be healthy … I can't log a lot of the foods I eat into fitness apps. For so long we've been taught this very narrow and Eurocentric view of what eating healthy means all while being taught that cultural foods and soul foods are unhealthy even though they're usually packed with nutrients." Meal by meal, we may inadvertently end up rejecting (even hating) our own culture after we’re told that our food is undesirable. This may lead to eating disorders that begin with behaviors like refusing meals at the family dinner table.
Fighting these stereotypes as an Asian American community is hard; asking for help personally can be even harder. There are many stigmas surrounding reaching out for treatment. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), Asian Americans have the lowest help-seeking rate of any ethnic group, with only 23% of adults with mental illness receiving treatment in 2019. This could be because the Asian community is less comfortable disclosing information relating to their family history or symptoms, despite often presenting with more physiological symptoms such as headaches and stomach pains.
4 Ways to start recovering from eating disorders
In the face of Western cultural influences that may try to rinse you of your connection with your heritage foods, it remains vital to remember that food, a fundamental fuel for human life, can be a key part of your identity.
To address food or body concerns consider:
Asking an older relative, trusted adult, or friends to have a conversation about your food or body image problems. You can also ask them to hold a private conversation with the individual who has been criticizing you about your body,
Establishing a buddy system for holidays or family gatherings when topics surrounding food or body image are brought up. Make sure you have a phone number of your buddy for the event.
Finding a therapist that provides culturally-sensitive healthcare, so they can assist you in repairing your relationship with your body and provide guidance in learning how to handle criticism. That way, you are able to handle those situations in the context of your own culture.
Striving towards acknowledging limiting beliefs such as “indulging in self-care is selfish or unproductive.” By acknowledging these beliefs, you can start making small changes to make a greater impact.
Recognizing the intersection of cultural norms, societal pressures, and personal experiences is crucial in addressing the complexity of eating disorders in fostering a healthier relationship with food and body image.
