Disclaimer: This article is written by our Embrace Kids Youth Crew member Lucy Flynn, and presents her personal lived experience and opinions.
What if the way we’re taught about food, movement and bodies in schools is actually doing more harm than good? From counting calories to viewing exercise as punishment, the way we approach health education is deeply rooted in diet culture. It’s time to rethink what we’re really teaching our students about their bodies and their wellbeing.
Last year I sat in my Year 9 Personal Development, Health and Physical Education (PDHPE, also known as HPE) class, with the topic being ‘Nutrition and Exercise’—a mandatory course all secondary students across NSW have to complete as part of their Record of School Achievement (or academic record in other states or territories). This is a topic that is also covered in primary school, and includes education around the food groups, appropriate food intake, the importance of exercise and how to be ‘healthy’.
Obviously, it is important that all children receive education around food & nutrition and learn about exercise in a fun and social environment. However, nutrition education should come from a neutral perspective that doesn’t label foods as ‘good’ or ‘bad’, and instead explains the benefits of a balanced diet that makes you feel good and fuels you for your studies, sports and daily activities. Unfortunately, this was not the case in my experience. Our nutrition education over the years has involved comparing calories in different foods, selecting which foods are ‘better’ and calculating body mass index (BMI, which is a calculation of a person’s weight in relation to their height). I have even had one peer tell me she was once given a chocolate and was then made to run laps until she “burned it off” in primary school. This one small comment over 5 years ago was something that stuck with her throughout her childhood and teenage years, and has continued to impact her relationship with food to this day. This, alongside other tactics used in many schools to encourage supposedly ‘healthier’ diets and mindsets (such as teachers checking lunchboxes, certain foods being banned, and the traffic light system) can have an unhelpful and lasting impact on young students’ relationships with food.
First…what is diet culture?
Diet culture is a set of beliefs and practices around food and weight that promote and glorify the pursuit of thinness and a warped idea of health. It is perpetuated by widespread discussion and promotion of dieting in books, social media and advertising. You can basically find diet culture everywhere—that influencer talking about getting into her “summer body”? Diet culture. The ad on the back of your morning bus promoting the newest weight loss shake? Diet culture. The newest juice cleanse fad? Diet culture!
Diet culture is linked to many myths, including:
- The idea that thinness equates to health
- The assumption that having a higher body weight means you are lazy or have poor health habits
- The belief that all women should aspire to be thin
Why is diet culture harmful?
Diet culture is harmful because it promotes the pursuit of thinness at the expense of our physical, mental and social health, while stigmatising larger bodies. This is a problem because dieting and disordered eating can very quickly turn into an eating disorder. Dieting is one of the strongest predictors for the development of an eating disorder, and restriction often leads to either more restriction or bingeing, which can trigger a vicious binge-purge cycle. More than 1 million Australians currently have an eating disorder, and this can become life threatening. More people die each year due to eating disorders than the annual national road toll.
The impact of one-size-fits-all nutrition education on students
When my brother (L) was three, he underwent his second major open heart surgery after being born with a congenital heart defect and contracting a deadly bacterial infection which spread to his heart. He was in hospital for months, learnt to walk again and had spent a good deal of time on IV nutrition/tube feeds. Part of his physical recovery involved a diet which was higher in fat and carbohydrates to support the energy his body was using to heal. When he returned to his preschool, his lunch box was filled with biscuits, flavoured milks, cheese, egg sandwiches and veggies, all of which had been recommended to him by a dietitian. On one of his first days back, his preschool sent my parents an email asking them to pack different foods, as the school encouraged a ‘healthy’ diet for all students. Keep in mind, these were all two-to-four year olds (most of whom likely refused to eat anything green anyway!) I can remember this pretty clearly, as the idea that a preschool would ban a sick child from eating the food they needed after fighting for their life really enraged my parents. L’s body needed high fats, high sugars, high protein and high carbohydrates. What might have been ‘healthy’ for the other kids there, was definitely not healthy for him.
Not only was this ordeal a prime example of how deeply diet culture is ingrained in some places, but it is also an example of the ignorance surrounding diet. Every body is unique and has its own specific needs, which should be recognised and addressed in schools. Factors such as age, gender, activity level, illness and ethnicity can all influence an individual’s dietary requirements, and these are essential considerations in nutrition education that cannot be overlooked.
Why weight gain isn’t inherently a negative thing
Something I do not understand is why we have been taught to automatically view weight gain as bad. Weight gain is a normal part of life, and is expected—especially during puberty! This is true for both boys and girls, and since we aren’t told in our PDHPE classes that gaining a few kilos during puberty is completely normal, a lot of teens freak out when it inevitably happens. Young women, in particular, tend to distribute body fat differently, often to protect vital and vulnerable organs, such as our uterus. Weight gain can also occur as a result of illness, medications or medical treatments, changes in diet, or simply due to hormones or muscle mass.
The importance of cultivating a positive relationship with food and our bodies
If we are going to be teaching nutrition in our PDHPE classes, why don’t we focus on encouraging a healthy relationship with food and our bodies? Teaching kids a neutral view on both their bodies and food in schools could be a great turning point in body image education and eating disorder prevention. This could look like not labelling foods as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ and giving kids strategies to combat unhelpful thoughts surrounding eating and their body. We know that children as young as 3 have already internalised ideas about bodies and appearance, so why don’t we implement age appropriate prevention strategies in primary school?
The importance of mental health education in the early years
Finally, something we should also be teaching in schools is a greater understanding of mental health. We know that 50% of mental health problems are established by age 14 and 75% by age 24, so why don’t we get ahead of the curve and start talking about mental wellbeing in primary school? There are many age-appropriate and non-confronting ways to do this, such as teaching kids to acknowledge and voice their feelings in social settings and talking about what to do if they are experiencing ‘big’ feelings. This could allow children to feel empowered to talk to a trusted adult if they do start to experience a bigger issue such as anxiety or depression, and could serve as harm reduction.
What to do if you notice problematic food or body-related content in your classroom or school
If you’ve noticed problematic classwork, practices or conversations in your school that may reinforce harmful messages about food, weight or bodies, you’re in a powerful position to spark change. You can share this letter with your colleagues and leadership team to inform them of the latest changes to the Australian Curriculum regarding the delivery of health, food and nutrition messaging in schools. Concerned parents and carers are also welcome to share the letter with their child’s school.
Educators can also upskill in this area by watching the free Teacher Masterclass, which is a 20-minute video that you can watch on your own or play in your staff meeting that gives teachers practical advice and actionable strategies about what to do and say to your students in relation to bodies, food and weight.
By implementing body-neutral education strategies and reshaping how we teach nutrition and mental health in schools, we can give the next generation the tools to build a more positive relationship with food, movement and their bodies—for life.
