Promoting Healthy Body Image, Eating, and Weight-Related Attitudes

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To develop a healthy body image in today’s social context, challenge toxic cultural myths that. encourage body dissatisfaction, eating, fitness, …

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Promoting Healthy Body Image, Eating, and Weight-Related Attitudes
To develop a healthy body image in today’s social context, challenge toxic cultural myths that
encourage body dissatisfaction, eating, fitness, and weight problems.
Challenge myths promoting image over substance: “How I look” is more important than “who I
am.” An essential criterion for the “right” look is a thin/lean body.
Teach students to understand and resist objectification:
?Acquire historical perspective on today’s body image attitudes. Understand that an emphasis on
superficial appearance is a formula for unhappiness.
?Become media-literate and recognize advertising strategies. Think critically about media
messages that encourage unrealistic, unhealthy body image attitudes.
?Develop a strong sense of identity based on inner qualities, not on appearance.
Challenge myths that deny biological diversity: Anyone can be slim if they work at it. Fatter people
inevitably eat too much, and/or are not active. Fat is bad/wrong.
Teach students the biological principals of size diversity:
?Understand the normal, expected addition of body fat that is common during puberty and other
developmental stages of life.
?Respect and appreciate vast genetic diversity of body shapes and sizes.
?Understand how the internal…