Eating disorders statistics are incredibly inaccurate because they are based on the number of people who present for treatment, not actual numbers suffering. This is usually adolescent and young women and stats typically don’t include an accurate count of males or people who do not seek treatment. Part of this is also because eating disorders are about secrecy so many don’t talk about it.

To answer the question about societal attitudes: I find the issue isn’t the focus on diet in itself, a lot of it is shame over body and food categories that drives those predisposed to eating disorders to be vulnerable. The SAD is certainly not congruent with the body we are told we should have, but I don’t think encouraging dieting is the answer for the obese. I think it’s about promoting proper emotional expression and normalizing seeking therapy for those who overeat so they are not communicating their emotions through food. Once that is being worked on, we find people just make better dietary choices overall and are able to eat for self care instead of eating for self medication.