Eating disorders in Black Women

Authour: Thelma Nnadi

What is an eating disorder?

An eating disorder (ED) is a serious mental illness, characterised by eating, exercise and body weight or shape becoming an unhealthy preoccupation of someone's life. EDs can cause serious health consequences and may even result in death if left untreated.

Examples include: Anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, Pica, binge-eating disorder, purging disorder, orthorexia and more.

How does Race come into this?
The research on eating disorders in minorities, specifically women from the African diaspora is scarce. Eating disorders are portrayed as the problem of only thin, white women; this fails to acknowledge the differences in identities of those suffering from EDs.

A look at the stats:

Black girls are 50% more likely than white girls to exhibit bulimic behavior (Goeree et al 2011)

Black people are more likely to suffer from binge eating disorder.

When presented with identical case studies demonstrating disordered eating symptoms in white, Hispanic and Black women, clinicians were asked to identify if the woman’s eating behaviour was problematic:

44% identified the white woman’s behaviour as problematic;

41% identified the Hispanic woman’s behaviour as problematic,

and only 17% identified the Black woman’s behaviour as problematic.

The clinicians were less likely to recommend that the Black woman should receive professional help

(Gordon KH et al 2006).

In the black community:

Minorities with higher rates of assimilation to western culture are at more risk of developing EDs because they have internalised the thin ideal notion of beauty which contributes to less satisfaction with their body shape and size. White dominant ED images add to black girls unconsciously upholding the notion that black girls do not get EDs whilst suffering from it themselves.The trauma black women are exposed to plays a role; Racism, acculturative stress, abuse, poverty and other trauma influence how we exist in our bodies. These experiences negatively impact our physical and psychological health. To cope with these stressors, eating disorders function as a response, it provides control and emotional relief to those suffering..

Becky Thompson writes in A Hunger So Wide and So Deep:

"The culture-of-thinness model has been used, erroneously, to dismiss eating problems among women of color based on the notion that they are not interested in or affected by a culture that demands thinness”

Black women are just as likely to be dissatisfied with their body type as a result of the culture. This racial bias influences physicians ability to detect EDs in black women.

The Effect of Popular Culture

The hourglass shape is the heralded, (whilst thinness is still what is considered beautiful) this is an ideal that disproportionately impacts black girls. There is an overwhelming expectation for Black women to have this shape, leading to pressure to achieve this. This could potentially contribute to us undertaking disordered eating behaviours or overexercising to achieve this.

What needs to be done?
1. It is imperative we grapple with how race is tied to experiences of body and food, and how distinct cultural forces contribute to the development of eating disorders in Black communities.

2. As a community, we have to break the pervasive silence and stigma about this disorder. We have to start identifying patterns of disordered eating and dysfunctional exercise behaviour in our community.

In conclusion

You can be a beautiful black, intelligent, professional, entrepreneur, charismatic, a friend and a sister and suffer with eating disorders. It does not take away from your identity.There is no real face of EDs.

We can all be susceptible to the insidiousness of the debilitating beliefs, thoughts, and feelings that fuel the eating disorder behaviour.

There is no shame in seeking help:

ORRI - 020 3481 9291

BEAT - 0808 801 0677

Resources:

• Anissa Gray, "The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls”

• Not All Black Girls Know How to Eat: A Story of Bulimia by Stephanie Covington Armstrong

• Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay

• A Hunger So Wide and So Deep: A Multiracial View of Women’s Eating Problems by Becky Thompson

• “Women of Color: The Eating Disorder Survivors who Suffer in Silence” by Achea Redd

For more information: https://socialmediavictims.org/mental-health/body-image/