Disordered Eating, Diet Culture, and Therapy in the Digital Age with Lauren Larkin
In our latest podcast episode, I sat down with therapist Lauren Larkin to explore one of the most pressing (yet often misunderstood) mental health issues of our time: disordered eating and its relationship with diet culture. As we talked through her transition from a career in media to becoming a therapist, we uncovered powerful truths about how social messaging, body image, and virtual therapy shape the way people experience food, identity, and recovery today.
In today’s image-obsessed world, conversations around food, body image, and health are everywhere, but not always helpful. Beneath wellness trends and fitness influencers lies a much more complicated reality: disordered eating is on the rise, often fueled by diet culture and the increasing pressure to perform perfection, both online and off.
As mental health professionals, individuals in recovery, and advocates continue to sound the alarm, it’s clear: we need to rethink the way we talk about food, bodies, and therapy.
What Is Disordered Eating?
Disordered eating exists on a spectrum. It includes behaviors that may not meet the full diagnostic criteria for an eating disorder but still cause emotional, physical, or psychological distress. Examples include:
Chronic dieting or restriction
Obsessive calorie tracking
Binge eating or compulsive overeating
Excessive exercise to “make up” for food
Anxiety or guilt around eating
While these behaviors are often normalized, especially in wellness or fitness spaces, they can seriously impact a person’s self-worth, relationships, and overall mental health.
How Diet Culture Fuels Disordered Eating
Diet culture is a system of beliefs that equates thinness with health, moral value, and success. It encourages people to pursue weight loss at all costs, labeling foods as “good” or “bad,” and framing self-control as virtuous. Unfortunately, this culture is deeply embedded in media, marketing, and even healthcare.
Some common traits of diet culture include:
Glorifying weight loss regardless of how it’s achieved
Demonizing certain food groups (carbs, fat, etc.)
Promoting extreme or unsustainable eating plans
Shaming larger bodies under the guise of “health”
For many, internalizing these messages leads to a painful cycle of restriction, guilt, and shame, sometimes for years.
Therapy in the Age of Zoom
As therapy increasingly moves online, new opportunities and challenges arise in addressing disordered eating. Virtual therapy (also called teletherapy) allows greater access to support, particularly for those in remote areas or with limited resources. But it also raises questions:
Can a therapist effectively assess body image issues over a screen?
Does the lack of physical presence affect therapeutic connection?
How do we build trust when body-based cues are harder to read?
Despite these challenges, many therapists have adapted and found creative ways to provide compassionate, effective care through virtual sessions. In fact, for some clients, the comfort of being in their own space can reduce anxiety and encourage more openness.
Healing Starts with Curiosity and Compassion
Whether someone is in the early stages of questioning their relationship with food, or in active recovery from an eating disorder, one thing is clear: healing is not about control, it’s about connection.
Connection to your body
Connection to your emotions
Connection to safe, nonjudgmental support
Therapy can play a crucial role in untangling the effects of diet culture, addressing underlying emotional needs, and building a healthier, more trusting relationship with food.
Final Thoughts
Disordered eating and diet culture are deeply intertwined with our modern world, especially in digital spaces where curated images and comparison run rampant. But with increased awareness, access to therapy, and a cultural shift toward body neutrality and intuitive eating, recovery is more possible than ever.
If you or someone you know is struggling, therapy can be a powerful first step in breaking free from the cycle and finding a path back to self-compassion and peace.
