Food. Body image. Health. Things we think about everyday. With ads on TV, in magazines, on the radio and with restaurants and fast food places changing menus to provide healthier options, it’s not our fault that food is on our minds a little bit too often. But did you know that even thinking about food could be having a dangerous affect on us?

Eating disorders have always been around, and are spreading like wildfire nowadays. But we’re not just talking about anorexia and bulimia, disorders where you either starve yourself or binge and purge. We’re talking about a new disorder associated with eating healthy. Meet Orthorexia, a serious disorder that may plague a lot more people than you think, including yourself.

Orthorexia nervosa is a condition in which people become obsessed with eating the “right” kinds of foods. We may roll our eyes and call them “health freaks” but the truth is that this is a very serious condition. Orthorexia causes people to obsess over what is eaten, how much is eaten, and how it is prepared.

So what’s so bad about being obsessed with eating healthy? Read More »

Laurie Sliva is the founder and director of BRIDGES Camp for Girls, a self-esteem and leadership building summer camp.  We met up with Laurie when we were doing research for CollegeCandy’s Eating Disorder Awareness week and knew instantly that her work and message had to be shared.

We are all fed up with our society’s impossible and unrealistic perception of beauty, and Laurie urges women everywhere to stop trying to change our bodies and start trying to change our mindsets.

I read somewhere that women have a negative thought about their bodies every 15 minutes. Sadly, this doesn’t surprise me.  I can look at my own thoughts over the years and say that sounds about right.  The more I talk to women and girls of all ages and body types, the more

I realize I am not alone.

I did feel alone at one point. I didn’t know that other girls felt like me.  In junior high, the pain of feeling left out, created an overwhelming desire to feel accepted and to feel a sense of belonging.  After losing some of my post-gymnastics, puberty weight the summer before high school, I noticed I got a little more attention from guys and girls. I felt pretty good. Soon I began skipping all meals except dinner with my family (so they wouldn’t find me out) and, when I needed more control, I began throwing up every night after dinner. My battle with anorexia-bulimia took over my life for the next six years my thoughts were occupied with how I was not going to eat, or if I had to eat, when I could throw it up, and how I would hide it from everyone who cared about me. My recovery began my sophomore year of college for a variety of reasons and with the support of family and friends who really didn’t have any idea how to help. Read More »

We’ve spent the last week discussing eating disorders, what triggers them and how they can negatively affect your life.  But we don’t want anyone to think that all weight loss attempts result in disordered eating or full-blow eating disorders.

If you want to lose a few pounds (or a lot of pounds) there are very healthy ways of doing so. Ways that don’t require you to binge on exercising or skip meals. We asked our friend Erin, a health and diet connoisseur for the college female at Student Body, for her advice on dieting the healthy way.

Her advice is below: Read More »

When we decided to devote a week on CollegeCandy to eating disorder awareness, we wanted to get some facts and statistics from the experts. We reached out to the people who study and know these diseases best, and in doing so, met Stacey, a survivor who is using her rough past to help others. We immediately fell in love with both this woman and her message and wanted to introduce her to you.

Here is Stacey’s story:

Don’t get me wrong, I love guys (I mean I LOVE guys), but what if the story had been different?  What if Adam had emerged from Eve’s rib instead of vice-versa?  Would we be living in an entirely different world?  Would a woman’s success be gauged monetarily and a man’s physically?  Would aggressiveness be seen as a feminine quality and submissiveness as masculine?  Would women eat whatever they wanted while men counted every one tenth of a calorie?  I have no idea, but I asked this five years ago when starting EvesRib.com, a company that promotes positive body image and self-esteem in girls and women through fashion, while donating a portion of our proceeds to the National Eating Disorders Association.  However, this was not the only thing that led to The Creation of Eve’s Rib.

I used to miss school because I was too ugly, miss parties because I was too fat, and miss life because I was too [insert any and all negative adjectives here.]  It was assumed that I would grow out of this after high school, but things only got worse.   While having a blast on the outside—seriously, an All-American, collegiate blast—I perfected the art of self-hatred on the inside, and no one was the wiser; sometimes not even myself. Read More »

Being college-aged women, we tend to spend more time noticing what we hate about ourselves than what we love. We stand in front of the mirror and pinch our fat, measure our thighs and obsess over our pale skin/big nose/ugly ears. But how often have you ever looked in the mirror and celebrated your body and yourself?

During a week we devoted to the Eating Disorder epidemic, we feel it is important to stop hating on ourseles and, instead, focus on the extraordinary things we have to offer. So, we asked the CollegeCandy writers what they loved about themselves and it looks like we have some pretty fantastic writers.

What is your favorite thing about yourself?

Amanda – Wagner: I love my ability to laugh at myself. I think its important not to take yourself too seriously and try to just laugh at all the crazy in your life. And, of course, I always have a good story to tell because if that.

Brithny – Duke: I love how I am an ABC- American Born Chinese. It’s given me more opportunities and experiences than I could ever hope for.

Leah – Ryerson University: I love my body as a whole.  I wouldn’t change one thing about it.

Alex – Lakehead University:  My smile and laugh. I snort and usually other people laugh at my laugh, so I get people smiling. Read More »

A recent poll on CollegeCandy showed that many of us know people in our lives who are suffering from an Eating Disorder. Not only did those results remind me of a very sad truth for our demographic, but they also made me realize that the only way to change that truth is to provide people with the tools necessary to help a friend in need.

I was anorexic and then bulimic for about two years before ultimately recovering. I have also had a few friends go down the Eating Disorder path, so I feel like I have been on both sides of the predicament and truly understand the best methods for reaching out to someone who is suffering from this brutal and debilitating disease.

The most important method for helping people help their friends is awareness, so first let me dispel some E.D myths. Read More »

As you may know, February is the month of Eating Disorder Awareness Week.

So, while the media continues to target body conscious young females, it’s important to keep in mind that eating disorders are an illness which have severe physical and emotional side effects. In our attempt to raise awareness we’re looking at the facts surrounding the illness that affects so many girls and women globally.

• It is estimated that 1 in 5 women struggle with an eating disorder of some kind, whether it is anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa or binge eating disorder, or somewhere in between.
• 10% of female college students suffer with eating disorders or disordered eating, of which, over half struggle with bulimia nervosa.
• 10-15% of people with anorexia or bulimia are males. And those are just the ones that have actually admitted they struggle with an eating disorder, as it has a reputation to be a disease that only effects women. In fact, there are thousands of males that struggle in secrecy every day.
• 80% of 13 year old girls have attempted to lose weight.
• A study by the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders reported that 5 – 10% of people with anorexia die within 10 years after contracting the disease; 18-20% will be dead after 20 years and only 30 – 40% ever fully recover.
• Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric illness.

Read More »

On Monday’s episode of The City, Whitney took her friends Erin and Allie out to meet up with her old boss, Kelly Cutrone, who upsets everyone by calling Allie, who is a model, “too skinny.”

Wait… a model is being called too skinny? By someone who works in the fashion industry?

When I heard that I couldn’t help thinking: “Finally! Is the world of fashion finally getting some sense in them?”

Of course, all of us normal folk know that the runway models are too skinny. It’s been a subject of constant controversy for years and one that is especially important to discuss as we attempt to bring more attention to the tragic effects of eating disorders. Models’ stick-thin figures are unrealistic, unhealthy, and unattainable—yet girls everywhere accept them as the standard to which to compare themselves (only to fall short in comparison). Because of this, the fashion industry is often blamed for so many young women developing eating disorders. For too many years, we’ve become used to sickly-looking models walking the runways, and have come to accept it as the norm.

But now it appears that things are beginning to change. Slowly.

Back in 2006, Spain banned too-thin models from the catwalk at Madrid’s Fashion Week, turning away any model with a B.M.I. (or Body Mass Index, which takes into account both height and weight) of less than 18. Representatives for Madrid’s regional government stated that the fashion industry has a “responsibility to portray healthy body images,” especially since “many teenagers imitate what they see on the catwalk.” Read More »

So maybe you’ve never gone more than 24 hours without food. Maybe you’ve never taken a laxative or made yourself throw up after eating too much. You don’t have an Eating Disorder. But how much of your day is spent thinking about food?

When you are out with friends, are you comparing what everyone else is eating to what you are eating, figuring out the calories instead of enjoying their company? Have you ever doubled your workouts to compensate for splurging on a slice of pizza? Can you barely even remember a time when you weren’t trying out the latest diet?

You don’t have to have an eating disorder to have an unhealthy relationship with food. It’s called Disordered Eating and it can be emotionally draining, physically exhausting or even lead to a full blown Eating Disorder.

Disordered Eating starts with a mentality rather than a behavior. If you are lucky to eat one real meal a day during finals week because you are so crazed trying to cram everything in, it’s not good for you, but it’s not a symptom of Disordered Eating. If you only eat one meal a day during finals week so you can at least be in control of your diet since everything else is so hectic, that’s Disordered Eating. It can present itself in many ways, but here are a few of the most common. Read More »

Tonight’s episode of The City was actually sorta entertaining. I am even willing to look past the fact that Erin lives in a ridiculous apartment in NYC and affords it by having spent the past year and a half “soul searching,” and the fact that she just wanted a job…and got one.

Why was it so good? Why, because Kelly Cutrone and her big mouth were there to throw a little spice into an extremely bland series.

So, Kell has a birthday party and Whitney decides to invite jobless Erin and skinny Allie. Whitney, of course, warns the ladies that Kelly speaks her mind (read: is a bitch), so they better watch out. Allie is so excited! She loves people who speak their mind!!

Unless that someone has something bad to say about her. Like how they hate her leggings. Or that she’s too skinny and looks like she hasn’t eaten a sandwich in 6 years. Read More »