Nutrition & Body Image

In it’s basic parts, food is made up of macronutrients (carbohydrates, fats, and proteins) and micronutrients (vitamins and minerals). All of these play essential roles in maintaining our health and well-being.

Carbohydrates are often unfairly labeled as “bad” in diet culture, but they are essential for your health. In fact, carbohydrates are your body’s main energy source. When you eat them, they break down into glucose, a type of sugar that fuels your brain, muscles, and every cell in your body.

Carbs power everything from walking to class to concentrating during a late-night study session. They’re also important for emotional balance, as consistent carbohydrate intake can help stabilize mood and blood sugar levels. Carbohydrate-rich foods come in many forms, and all of them can fit in a balanced, non-restrictive approach to eating. Some examples include:

• Fruits and vegetables like apples, bananas, carrots, and sweet potatoes
• Legumes such as beans and lentils
• Grains like rice, oats, bread, pasta, and tortillas
• Dairy, including milk and yogurt
• Sweets such as cookies, pastries, and candy.

Carbohydrates are often packaged with fiber, which helps with digestion and supports feelings of fullness and satisfaction. Instead of fearing carbs, embrace them as the fuel your body needs and deserves.

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Fat is a critical nutrient that supports many vital functions in the body. Despite what you may have heard from diet culture, fat is not the enemy. Your brain is nearly 60% fat, and dietary fats are essential for thinking clearly, balancing hormones, and absorbing vitamins A, D, E, and K.

Fats also play a major role in helping you feel satisfied after a meal. Including fats in your meals and snacks supports sustained energy and makes food more enjoyable.

Some examples of nourishing fats include:

• Plant-based sources like avocados, olive oil, nuts, and seeds
• Dairy products such as cheese, yogurt, and whole milk
• Fatty fish like salmon and sardines
• Other fats, including butter, coconut, and chocolate

Healthy eating doesn’t require cutting out fats; avoiding them can leave you feeling tired, unsatisfied, and disconnected from your body’s needs. Your body is designed to thrive with fat as part of a balanced intake.

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Protein is essential for building and repairing tissues, making enzymes and hormones, and supporting your immune system. Protein isn’t just for athletes or people trying to “bulk up.” It supports everyday activities like wound healing, immune defense, and hormone regulation. It also helps you feel full and satisfied throughout the day. You can find protein in a wide range of foods:

• Animal-based: eggs, poultry, fish, dairy products
• Plant-based: tofu, tempeh, beans, lentils, chickpeas

Snacks and alternatives: nuts, seeds, protein bars, and powders (if desired)

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Micronutrients are vitamins and minerals found in many plant and animal foods. While we need them in smaller amounts compared to macronutrients, they’re essential for keeping your body running smoothly, from bone health and brain function to your immune system and metabolism.

Here are a few key examples:

• Iron (in red meat, leafy greens, beans): supports oxygen transport and energy levels
• Calcium (in dairy, tofu, fortified milk alternatives, broccoli): supports bone health and muscle function
• Vitamin C (in citrus fruits, bell peppers, strawberries): helps the immune system and aids in iron absorption
• Vitamin D (from sunlight, fatty fish, fortified foods): supports mood, bone health, and immune function
• B vitamins (in whole grains, eggs, meat): help convert food into energy and support brain function

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There’s no one “right” way to eat, and your needs will shift day to day, month to month, and year to year. What matters most is fueling your body in a way that feels good physically, emotionally, and culturally. The key is variety, flexibility, and trusting that your body is smart; it knows how to use what you give it. You deserve to nourish yourself without guilt or shame.

Food isn’t just about getting nutrients; it’s tied to culture, traditions, and identity. What we eat, how we cook, and who we share meals with are all shaped by things like our background, family history, religion, and personal experiences. So when we talk about nutrition, it’s important to recognize that food isn’t just fuel. It holds emotional, social, and cultural meaning that influences how people define what “healthy” means to them.

There’s no single right way to eat. Most official nutrition guidelines are based on Western/Eurocentric biomedical perspectives, which often don’t reflect the eating habits or health beliefs of Indigenous or non-Western communities. What’s considered a “balanced” meal looks different depending on the culture. A traditional Japanese meal might include rice, miso soup, fish, and vegetables. In West Africa, it could be root vegetables, legumes, and stews made with palm oil. A Middle Eastern meal might include flatbreads, lentils, olives, and yogurt-based sauces. All of these are nourishing in their own way, and they show how important it is to include culturally familiar meals when we talk about food, health, and access.

Cultural food traditions are shaped by history and environment, things like migration, colonization, access to land, and local resources. These traditions often involve specific ingredients and cooking methods passed down through generations. They play an important role in both family and community life. Many traditional foods are nutritious and deeply meaningful, even though they’re sometimes labeled as “unhealthy” through the lens of Western diet culture. That kind of judgment can be harmful and overlook what these foods represent.

Food is also a reflection of identity. People’s food choices are influenced by religion, gender roles, cultural background, socioeconomic status, and life experiences. These choices can shift over time depending on health, age, living situation, or big transitions like starting college. For students especially, eating foods from home can bring comfort and a sense of familiarity during times of change.

Food also helps people connect. Sharing meals with family, friends, or peers is a meaningful way to build relationships and support mental well-being. Mealtimes often create space for celebration, conversation, and reflection. But for many students, college can disrupt their usual food routines. Homesickness, limited access to cultural foods, or food insecurity can affect both physical health and emotional well-being.

That’s why it’s so important to think about nutrition in a more inclusive way, one that respects personal choice, cultural background, and access to food. People make food decisions for various reasons, like religious values, taste preferences, financial situations, or health conditions. All of those reasons matter. Supporting students means recognizing the importance of traditional and cultural foods, challenging narrow ideas about what counts as “healthy,” and honoring the many different ways people nourish themselves.

Our relationship with our bodies is deeply shaped by the culture we live in. A culture that values thinness, appearance, and control, often above health, humanity, or happiness; otherwise known as “diet culture”. From media messages to healthcare systems, to fashion and family dynamics, we are surrounded by the idea that to be “good,” we must be small, disciplined, and self-restricting. This toxic view of bodies does not develop in a vacuum; it is the product of larger systems of oppression that teach us not only how we should look, but also how we should eat, move, and feel. Understanding body image, then, requires more than self-reflection. It demands that we examine the structural forces like anti-fat bias, racism, sexism, ableism, and classism that shape who gets to feel comfortable in their body and who is made to feel like a problem.

Cultural standards of beauty and health are not universal truths; they are social constructs, often rooted in white, Western, cisgender, thin, able-bodied ideals. These ideals are aggressively promoted through media, advertising, and health messaging. They tell us that thinner is better, lighter is more beautiful, and discipline equals worth. But these values are not neutral, they come from systems of power that marginalize anyone who doesn’t fit the mold.

• Racism, for example, upholds Eurocentric beauty standards, making traits like light skin and straight hair seem ideal.
• Sexism reinforces the idea that women’s value lies in their appearance and thinness.
• Ableism positions non-disabled bodies as the norm, while classism influences body ideals by making “wellness” practices and thinness seem like achievements of the privileged.
• Anti-fat bias underpins all of this, associating larger bodies with failure, laziness, and poor health, regardless of actual well-being.

These intersecting systems not only distort how we see ourselves, but they also impact access to care, representation, respect, and basic safety. When we internalize these messages, body dissatisfaction becomes less about personal insecurity and more about systemic oppression.

In response to these harmful ideals, body neutrality offers a powerful alternative. Rather than focusing on loving how we look, body neutrality asks us to shift our focus to what our bodies do. It emphasizes respect, functionality, and presence over aesthetics.

Body neutrality helps us step back from appearance-based self-worth and begin unlearning the belief that beauty equals value. It also makes space for those whose bodies have been historically erased or stigmatized, including fat, disabled, trans, and racially marginalized bodies, to exist without needing to justify or change themselves to be accepted. Practicing body neutrality is not just an act of personal healing, it is a form of social resistance. It rejects the cultural obsession with thinness and appearance, and calls instead for a world where all bodies are worthy of respect, care, and freedom.

At the heart of many body image issues in our culture is anti-fat bias, the prejudice and discrimination against people who are fat. This bias influences everything from how medical providers treat patients to how clothing is marketed, to whether someone feels safe exercising in public. It is not about health.

We’re often taught that fatness is a result of “poor choices,” and that weight loss is a sign of success or self-discipline. But this perspective ignores the reality of genetics, trauma, environment, poverty, disability, and chronic illness, all of which affect body size and health. It also fuels dangerous behaviors like disordered eating, yo-yo dieting, and overexercise, all in the name of “health”.

The Health at Every Size (HAES®) framework offers a meaningful alternative. HAES® rejects weight as the primary indicator of health and instead promotes:

• Respect for body diversity
• Eating in a way that is nourishing and sustainable
• Movement that brings joy and supports function
• Compassionate, stigma-free healthcare
• Autonomy over one’s own body and choices

This model acknowledges that health is complex, influenced by social determinants like income, access to care, and discrimination. It is not something we can measure by looking at someone’s size.

Anti-fat bias and body shame are also closely tied to how we experience food. Many of us have been taught to divide food into “good” and “bad” categories, attaching guilt to our eating choices. As the Food Morality Reflection Worksheets emphasize, moralizing food leads to anxiety, shame, and a disconnection from our own hunger and satisfaction cues. This mindset creates harmful cycles of restriction and bingeing, where we attempt to “redeem” ourselves through control and self-punishment. But food is not a test of willpower or virtue. It is a source of nourishment, culture, pleasure, and connection.

Food neutrality means giving yourself unconditional permission to eat without judgment. It means honoring cravings, exploring satisfaction, and seeing all foods as having a place in a balanced, joyful way of eating. It also means questioning the external voices, diet culture, influencers, and wellness trends that make us feel like our choices aren’t good enough unless they lead to weight loss. By letting go of food rules, we can begin to trust our bodies again—and heal the damage caused by years of restriction and shame.

Ultimately, unlearning body shame and embracing food and body neutrality isn’t just about individual well-being. It’s about creating a world where bodies are not judged, policed, or controlled. A world where students don’t skip meals to meet beauty standards, where medical professionals provide equitable care, and where people of all sizes can move through the world with dignity.

This work takes time, reflection, and community. It requires listening to marginalized voices, challenging internalized bias, and practicing radical self-compassion. It also means supporting others, whether by advocating for inclusive policies, pushing back against stigmatizing language, or simply holding space for people to exist without needing to change. As we move away from diet culture and toward a more inclusive understanding of health and worth, we begin to build not just body acceptance, but body liberation.

If you are looking to build a better body image, here are some starting tips from the National Eating Disorders Association

We recognize that conversations about food, body image, and eating disorders can bring up difficult emotions. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, please take care of yourself and engage with this information in a way that feels safe for you. You are not alone.

Eating disorders are serious, but treatable, mental and physical health conditions that affect people of all genders, races, sizes, sexualities, and backgrounds. These struggles can impact the way someone thinks about food, eating, weight, and body shape, and may interfere with health, relationships, and everyday life. Over time, eating disorders can also affect the body in significant ways, including the heart, digestive system, teeth and mouth, and bones. They are often accompanied by emotional challenges such as anxiety, depression, self-harm, and, in some cases, suicidal thoughts. If you or someone you know is experiencing any of these symptoms, please know that you deserve support and that healing is possible.

You cannot determine if someone is struggling by looking at them. Many people can experience disordered eating without meeting the criteria for a formal diagnosis, and all of these experiences are valid and worthy of care.

There is no shame in reaching out for help. Support is available, and healing is possible.

On-Campus Resources

• Student Counseling Center
  • Email: counsel@lclark.edu
  • Phone: 503-768-7160
  • Odell Residence Hall Room 012 (exterior basement entrance)
  • The counseling center offers crisis counseling and short-term individual, couples, and group therapy, which may include assistance with body image issues and eating disorders. They can also support in finding an off-campus, long-term provider who will fit your needs
• Case Management
  • Email: gabyh@lclark.edu
  • Phone: 503-768-7156
  • Albany Quadrangle Room 206L (inside OSA)
  • Case management can help you identify and access both on and off campus resources and navigate complicated systems or situations. This service is particularly beneficial for students dealing with body image concerns, disordered eating, or other complex issues that may impact their well-being and academic success.
• Welfare Intervention Network
  • ​The Welfare Intervention Network (WIN) at Lewis & Clark College is a multidisciplinary team of faculty and staff dedicated to supporting students who may be experiencing significant personal challenges, including those related to body image, disordered eating, or overall well-being.
  • Contact anyone on the Welfare Intervention Team here or make an online report here.
• Health Promotion and Wellness (HPW)
  • Email: healthed@lclark.edu
  • Phone: 503-768-8225
  • Fowler Student Center Room 110
  • HPW supports students in being mindful of their own health and well-being and making informed choices. HPW offers digital and in-person/physical resources centered on various health topics, including body image and food relationships.
• Student Health Center
  • Email: health@lclark.edu
  • 503-768-7165
  • Fowler Student Center, 160 (exterior entrance facing Frank Manor House)
  • The Student Health Center operates similarly to a primary care clinic, assisting in the evaluation and treatment of illness, physical exams, and other injuries, including those related to body image, disordered eating, or overall well-being.

Off-Campus Resources

• • What are Eating Disorders?: Learn more about different types of eating disorders, their symptoms, and how they can affect overall well-being.
  • Warning Signs and Symptoms: Understand the behavioral and physical signs that may indicate someone is struggling with an eating disorder.
  • Eating Disorder Screening Tool - NEDA: A free, confidential tool to help you determine if you or a loved one may be experiencing symptoms of an eating disorder—and how to connect with support.
  • NEDA Treatment Finder: Allows you to find an eating disorder treatment provider near you in the United States

Hotlines

• National Alliance for Eating Disorders hotline: +1 (866) 662-1235
  • You can also reach out online at the Alliance for Eating Disorders
• Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: Dial 988
  • You can also visit 988 Lifeline to call, text, or chat with the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline online.
  • The Suicide and Crisis Lifeline also has Spanish, Deaf, and Hard-of-hearing services.

• Crisis Text Line: Text 741-741.
  • You can also visit Crisis Text Line to text, chat, or WhatsApp the Crisis Text Line online
  • They also have services in Spanish. You can send a text saying “Hola” to 7417741