One in five adolescents worldwide exhibits disordered eating behavior

With psychologists, drama teachers and nutrition experts against eating disorders

Despite the fact that there are no precise statistics in Hungary on how many teenagers suffer from eating disorders, according to an international study published in 2023, the overall rate of children and adolescents struggling with eating disorders is 22.36%. Worldwide, approximately one in five adolescents experience eating behaviors that are not considered a pathological eating disorder diagnosis, but indicate a “disturbed” relationship with food. In addition, we can read more and more about the current generation’s dissatisfaction with their appearance, which is partly due to the content spread on social media. This not only affects their performance, social relationships, mental health, self-esteem, but also their nutrition, so eating disorders are common, which can lead to further health problems. To provide students with experiential education on this topic, BioTechUSA created the Together for Children’s Health program, which launched in September of this year and explored the topic with the help of psychologists, drama teachers, and nutrition experts.

Eating disorders can affect anyone, regardless of gender or age

The program was attended by 160 students who were open to the sensitive topic. Feedback from teachers and professionals revealed that there were students among them who struggled with some kind of eating disorder. There was a class where the girls were having a big problem with not eating, many of them fainting during class, which was not due to financial reasons, but more likely due to the initial symptoms of an eating disorder and fad diets. It is important to emphasize that eating disorders can affect anyone, regardless of gender or age, so the program’s experts believe that more awareness-raising sessions are needed. Conversations that encourage eating can help, and it is also important that students learn stress management techniques instead of “starving themselves.”

“BioTechUSA’s Health Program works with an experiential pedagogical toolkit, which we don’t have the opportunity to do at school, and thus all the information is much more memorable for the students. I find the initiative extremely useful, very enjoyable and filling a gap,” said Ildikó Veres, a teacher at the 16th District Szerb Antal High School. The program was implemented by the company in collaboration with several organizations, who provided useful information about healthy eating, proper body image, self-esteem, and psychological difficulties affecting adolescents. Thanks to the Kamasztér Foundation, the students participated in an escape room led by psychologists, where they could learn about positive body image and self-confidence. At the cooking workshop organized by the Foundation for Nutrition, they discussed the basic knowledge of balanced nutrition in an interactive way, and then prepared healthy meals during a joint cooking session in the kitchen of the VIK Hospitality, Tourism, Beauty Baptist Technical School, Vocational School and High School. They watched an interactive theatrical performance on eating disorders, directed by the Kerekasztal Színház, and finally, at the Budapest Medical Students Association Semmelweis Health Competition, they compared everything they had learned during the multi-station program.