Look Who’s Talking speaker tackles effects of pervasive diet culture

Disordered eating habits were reported by 78% of Mt. Pleasant-area high school students involved in a recent American Heart Association study conducted by Samantha Hahn, a Central Michigan University College of Medicine faculty member.

Hahn, Ph.D., MPH, RD, was the keynote speaker of the annual Look Who’s Talking luncheon on Oct. 30 in Mt. Pleasant. She tailored her remarks to help the 350 attendees understand how pervasive the diet culture is, how we all fall prey to it, and other ways to view weight. Consider:

• Girls as young as 3 — toddlers — already show a preference for thin bodies.

• Movies and advertising regularly convey “even if you’re thin, you’re not thin enough.”

• Disordered eating — habits such as skipping meals, abusing laxatives, binge eating and self-induced vomiting — peaks during adolescence/young adulthood and again during perimenopause.

• Science shows diets don’t work. In fact, diets slow our metabolism for the long term.

• Eating disorders cause a high morbidity and mortality rate, second only to opioid addiction.

• Our diet culture tells us lean, muscular bodies are possible if we work hard enough and buy the right products.

• Our diet culture creates biases that those who are not thin are less valuable, not as smart, not as healthy, and their situation is their own fault.

“I’m here to tell you, who you are is NOT what you look like,” Hahn said.

Hahn advises us to turn our focus away from how we look to being thankful for all that our bodies do for us. She talks of intuitive eating, paying attention to what our bodies need and finding the right balance of food that works for each of us.

Hahn encouraged audience members to reflect on their own perceptions and actions that feed into the diet culture and the pervasive messages of and “health equals leanness, leanness and youth equal beauty, and beauty is the most important thing to strive for.”

The annual Look Who’s Talking Speaker Series is organized by the Mt. Pleasant Area Community Foundation's Women's Initiative Committee. Event proceeds go to the Women's Initiative Fund, which has awarded 81 grants worth nearly $170,000 for services and programs supporting Isabella County women and girls.

The fund endowment exceeds $700,000, with new donations added every year. Annual investment earnings — which grow as the endowment grows — fund the grants. 

Donations may be made online or by calling the Foundation at 989-773-7322.