Eating disorder experts warn against online wellness trends

A 30-year-old Sunshine Coast woman has recovered from an eating disorder after learning about dieting as a teenager through traditional media.

Now working in eating disorder recovery, she says young Australians are being negatively impacted by the growing online wellness economy.

The global wellness economy is forecast to reach $9 trillion by 2028.

Warning: This article mentions eating disorders, disordered eating, and restrictive eating practices.

Kathleen McBride grew up believing a perfect body was what made a woman worthy.

"I had a lot of obsessions with exercise and constantly thinking about my body and weight loss," the now-30-year-old said.

She said she developed the eating disorder after consuming a steady diet of commercials about weight control products and celebrity messaging that "nothing tastes as good as skinny feels".

Now recovered, and working at an eating disorder recovery village on Queensland's Sunshine Coast, Ms McBride is alarmed that the same types of body-obsessed narratives are being perpetuated for another generation.

These days, it is repackaged as "wellness" and delivered through an algorithm on their phones.

Ms McBride said she has witnessed young, impressionable people being swamped by content promoting dangerous body image stereotypes and diets.

"We see such a heavy level of restriction and diets ranging from the carnivore diet to low-FODMAP to macro counting to gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-free," she said.

In September, the Butterfly Foundation, one of Australia's leading eating disorder charities, warned of the influence of the booming global wellness economy, which is estimated to reach $9 trillion by 2028.

"Wellness shouldn't make anyone feel worse about themselves," Butterfly CEO Jim Hungerford said.

"Narrow appearance ideals are not health goals, and we are asking everyone to consider whose interests are served by the messages we are sold about our health and bodies."

Jade Gooding, CEO of the Australia New Zealand Academy for Eating Disorders, agreed.

"We receive so many conflicting messages about health in our society," she said. "But what a lot of people don't realise is that these are perpetrated by industries and systems of power that exist to profit from our own insecurities."

The foundation's data states eating disorders affect more than 1.1 million people across the country, and that since 2012, the number of people impacted by eating disorders has increased by more than 21 per cent.

According to an international, peer-reviewed study released on Thursday, anorexia and bulimia are a "growing public health challenge" affecting an estimated 18.1 million people worldwide in 2023, an increase of 71 per cent since 1990.

Forecasts from the study predict rates of anorexia and bulimia would continue to rise through 2050.

Rhianna Healey, 28, works on the Sunshine Coast as a dietitian.

As a teenager, she says she was inundated with harmful wellness content on social media and was admitted to hospital at the age of 15 for involuntary treatment for an eating disorder.

"It was really hard to recognise when those behaviours were becoming harmful because it was so ingrained within society," she said.

Through her work, Ms Healey says she can see how susceptible young people are to online content creators sharing information or brand deals packaged as wellness.

"It is appalling that diet and wellness companies make millions, while evidence tells us dieting is the single biggest behavioural risk factor for an eating disorder," she said.

Angela Hinz, a lecturer and researcher at the University of the Sunshine Coast, said the impact social media had on young people's body image and eating habits was "well established".

Short videos, known as reels or TikToks, are watched daily by many young Australians.

"It's really engaging, it's really compelling, and it encourages what we call parasocial relationships," Dr Hinz said.

"With young Australians, and this is true for young people globally, there's some real trends towards being very health conscious."

Despite this, Dr Hinz said wellness content was diminishing young people's trust in healthcare practitioners and interfering with their relationships and sexual intimacy.

"When you combine that with a lot of social media content that might carry a fair degree of misinformation … the body becomes a project and there's no level of satisfaction because there's always something more to do and achieve," she said.

Sunshine Coast allied health worker Mathieu Cadart said he saw young Australians with eating disorders suffering severe physical and mental health damage.

While Mr Cadart agreed social media companies should regulate content better, he said the onus should also be on the content creator.

He said creators should ask themselves: "'Am I going to just let go of my potential duty of care or empathy and compassion for other human beings to get views or get likes … or do I need to rethink my approach to this so that there's minimal danger present and the risk to other people is lowered?'

"If you're profiting … because you're putting other people at risk, then you need to have a good hard look in the mirror and really think about what you're doing."

Dr Hinz said she hoped to see the introduction of better duty-of-care laws.

She wants harmful content flagged and removed, and for the posters to be held accountable — especially where profit is involved.

"It's important to think about what we could do better in terms of getting good, accurate health information out there for young people," Dr Hinz said.

"If there were some things in place to help drive the appropriate content and the content that is regulated and the content that is accurate, then that would also be a good thing to see in the future."