08/09/2026
This Body Image and Eating Disorder Awareness Week, we are reflecting on the ways wellness culture can influence how we see our bodies, food and health.
We are constantly being given messages about what we should eat, how we should move, what our bodies should look like, and what we need to do to be “healthy”.
But when wellness becomes centred around restriction, weight loss, body transformation or rigid rules, it can often come at a cost. Often to our relationship with food, our bodies and our mental health.
Dieting is one of the biggest risk factors for developing an eating disorder, yet dieting and weight loss continue to be packaged as wellness, self-care and even a measure of health.
So this BIEDAW, we’re encouraging you to stop and question:
- Who benefits from the wellness messages we’re being sold?
- Is this advice helping me feel more connected to my body, or more critical of it?
- Is my relationship with food becoming more flexible, or more fearful and rule-bound?
- Could “health” look different to what I am seeing online?
Wellness doesn’t have to mean controlling your body.
It doesn’t have to mean eating "perfectly", exercising every day or pursuing a particular body size.
And it certainly shouldn’t come at the expense of your mental health or your relationship with food.
This week, let’s make space for a broader, more compassionate understanding of health; one that leaves room for nourishment, flexibility, pleasure, rest and bodies of all shapes and sizes.
Check out the following pages for more information on this important week and related topics:
Eating Disorders Victoria Butterfly Foundation Eating Disorders Queensland ANZAED Australia & New Zealand Academy For Eating Disorders EDFA Eating Disorders Collaboration InsideOut Institute for Eating Disorders