TikTok’s “SkinnyTok” trend presents an illusion of effortless thinness while obscuring the restrictive and often harmful behaviours required to maintain such bodies. A growing counter-trend offers a refreshing challenge by normalising flexible, adequate, and non-restrictive eating. This article explores both movements, their psychological impact, and why neither shows the full picture of what healthy eating or wellbeing truly looks like.

What if food wasn’t something to control, earn or justify, but a form of currency that keeps your body’s systems running? Every cell you grow, every thought you think, and every emotion you feel has an energy cost. In this blog, I explore a powerful metaphor shared by one of my clients: food as biological currency. Each meal becomes an investment - in focus, strength, patience, or joy. So next time you eat, ask yourself: What am I buying today?

Eating disorders can make hunger and fullness cues confusing or unreliable. Hormones like ghrelin and leptin, which normally regulate appetite, become disrupted by restriction, bingeing, or purging. Hunger may show up in ways beyond a rumbling stomach - from shakiness and lightheadedness to food preoccupation, irritability, or trouble concentrating. Recovery involves relearning how to notice and trust these signals.

Eating disorders affect people of all genders and sexualities, but research shows LGBTQ+ communities are at higher risk. Factors like gender dysphoria, minority stress, and barriers to affirming care all play a role. Understanding these unique challenges is key to providing the support and treatment that LGBTQ+ people deserve.

When The Biggest Loser first aired, it captured audiences with dramatic before-and-after photos and emotional weigh-ins. But behind the spectacle was a darker reality; one of exploitation, stigma, and long-term harm. Drawing on my own experience working in reality television, I explore the ways the show failed to protect participants, the lasting damage of extreme weight loss, and what it reveals about how society views body size and dignity.

In a world where AI-generated models grace fashion magazines and celebrities sell face-shaping shapewear, the pressure to meet impossible beauty ideals is more intense than ever. This blog explores two disturbing new trends, and why they matter for body image and mental health.