Throughout their pre-teen and teen years, there is a lot of pressure on girls to be skinny, small or petite. This pressure often comes from unrealistic images and lifestyles presented on social media. However, it’s not just social media. Unrealistic standards are pushed onto girls through comments from parents and siblings and friends, whether directly or not. They are also handed down through generations of women made to feel like they need to be a certain weight to be happy or loved. This pressure can lead girls to eat fewer full nutritious meals. This in turn leads to both mental and physical health problems. However, my own personal journey with food has made me realize that these problems would be avoidable if we as a society learned to look at food with the right mindset. 

First off, the mental health problems that come with not eating can be very severe. There are several types of disordered eating that are problems in themselves, including but not limited to anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge-eating disorder. According to Eating Disorder Hope, studies have shown that in the last three years, eating disorders in children and teens have increased by 110 percent. While I’m speaking from my experience as a girl, boys can also struggle with eating disorders. The eating disorders included in this increase are also often paired with mental health struggles such as depression and anxiety. These issues compound on themselves, causing more and more problems for the person suffering from them as they worsen. After all, it is easier to heal from an eating disorder on its own than to overcome an eating disorder while also dealing with depression and anxiety. 

On top of the mental health issues, eating disorders can cause a host of physical issues for the people who suffer from them. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, these include but aren’t limited to blood sugar, heart, bone, muscle, stomach and hormone problems. Every function of our bodies depends on the intake of nutrients, so when people don’t get enough food to even keep their bodies running, it’s a big problem.

These issues are not something that only other people struggle with. For my whole life, I’ve dealt with comments about how I look, just as every other girl does, and the various comments over the years did not help my mental health. “You’ll tone up once you start running again,” and “Wow, look how small I am compared to you,” are words I’m sure many girls have heard. These repetitive comments led to the belief that I would be better off not eating—that way I could be skinny like people wanted me to be. In my junior high years, there were a lot of times I didn’t eat lunch because of this. I skipped lunch because that was the easiest meal to miss. I didn’t have to deal with my parents asking questions, and I thought that because I was only missing one meal, it wasn’t that bad. However, it was not only me struggling. Most of my friends didn’t eat lunch either. 

At the time, I didn’t realize how bad this was for me. Now, looking back on those years of my life, I realize that I struggled with a form of disordered eating. I can see that depriving myself of nutrients was not only bad for me but also not getting me any closer to my goals. Although there are many people who have it worse, I still didn’t deserve to struggle with that. 

Luckily for me, I got into CrossFit in eighth grade before my struggle could get worse. At the gym, I learned to adopt the mindset that food is fuel. Food provides energy for our bodies to function and to build muscle. Through this shift in mindset, I realized that not eating was not healthy. My goal changed from wanting to be skinny to wanting to be strong and healthy. While body image is something I definitely still struggle with, I have come a long way since my junior high days.

Now, I am doing nutrition training through a coach at my gym. This has involved photo logging, tracking macros and calories and taking progress pictures and measurements. I have learned what I need to put into my body to fuel it properly. I understand the effects of different types of food on the person who eats them. I now know how to balance my plate and get the right amount of protein per day. I feel good about the decisions I make about food. I am able to eat healthy most of the time while also enjoying a sweet treat when I want it. 

Overall, I have experienced a major mindset shift in the way that I view food. I now realize that food is fuel and something that can help me get closer to achieving my goals. I think if our society could learn to look at food from this same perspective, we could stop putting expectations on pre-teen and teen girls. This could slow down or stop the eating disorder problem so common in our generation. From the time they can even start to think about what they look like, girls are made to believe they shouldn’t take up space. They are tricked into thinking they need to be skinny in order to be loved or to be desirable. Because these are very harmful ideals, we need to work toward a mindset shift throughout society to help girls view food as fuel and not a fear.