Staff Editorial: “Crash dieting” can lead to harmful eating disorders

Every year before spring, many students try any method they can to lose weight before hitting the beach or other exotic locations. For too many, losing weight so quickly involves a practice that has come to be known as “crash dieting,” where those taking part will eat as little as once a day. Often, that once-a-day meal will be something as insubstantial as a piece of toast with margarine or an apple. The pain of going through such an exercise, the logic goes, is more than offset by the gain from a better beach figure. The extra attention derived from a good “bikini body” is seen as worth a little temporary discomfort.

But for many students, the line between dieting and an eating disorder is a blurry one. According to the Alliance for Eating Disorders Awareness, the most common behavior that will lead to an eating disorder is dieting. Low body image or self-esteem can lead first to “crash dieting” and then into full-fledged disorder—and the consequences can be devastating. An obsession over weight—whether it is expressed through a full-fledged eating disorder or pathological dieting—can lead to serious health problems. The fact is, crash dieting is unhealthy even by itself. Its tendency to lead to eating disorders makes it dangerous.

Intense diets often lead to mental problems like irritability and depression. They restrict essential nutrients like iron, potassium, sodium, and vitamin B12, which are involved in keeping the body fully functioning. Potassium and sodium, especially, are incredibly important to nerve, muscle, and heart function. Low enough levels can lead to a heart attack.

And crash dieting isn’t even the best way to lose weight and keep it off. Eating small, healthy meals throughout the day has a much better long-term effect than occasional severe dieting. It is also more likely to keep weight off, whereas crash dieting will take weight off in the short term and pack on the pounds soon afterward.

A healthy diet involves a slow, steady cutback on calories to keep metabolism running at a normal level to avoid the “yo-yo” effect of periodic severe dieting. Regular (but not intense) exercise helps to complement healthy meals. It’s not hard to lead a healthy lifestyle—and yes, even the occasional cheeseburger is okay.

Discussion of unhealthy dieting habits is especially timely now, as the weather warms and summer approaches. But the approach of beach weather is no excuse to engage in unhealthy habits, especially when they often lead to harm down the road. Eating disorders are incredibly difficult to break out of. A “beach body” is not worth the emotional, mental, and physical costs that so often accompany chronic dieting and eating disorders.

But the responsibility for preventing unhealthy behavior is not only on those who engage in it. Eating disorders often go unreported because the friends and families of sufferers often dismiss it as just a weird quirk or a strange but harmless obsession with healthiness. For many people, it is difficult to understand how eating disorders “occur” in friends and relatives. The important thing to understand is that eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia are often expressions of underlying emotional issues. While it might not make sense to you, eating disorders and body image issues are a reality in the lives of millions of Americans and it is a daily struggle for those who have recovered from them.

We need to step up. If unhealthy dieting is going on, friends and family need to help their loved ones deal by providing support and access to help. Identifying and helping those we care about deal with the symptoms of eating disorders is a responsibility we all share because it affects each of us, regardless of whether we struggle with those issues ourselves. 

Avenues for help exist. Anyone concerned about eating disorders or unhealthy dieting can go to the Counseling Office in either LaFarge or Merion Gardens, where the counselors are trained to help deal with the problem. Those uncomfortable with that option can always talk to their resident assistant, who can provide help or encouragement. As the warmth of summer approaches, we all need to be aware of the dangers of unhealthy dieting for both ourselves and those we care about in our community.