Eating disorder recovery in a diet culture world

Short Wave

NPR

Nature, News, Astronomy, Science, Daily News, Life Sciences

4.7 • 6.5K Ratings

🗓️ 21 April 2026

⏱️ 14 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Eating disorders are complicated illnesses that skyrocketed among teenagers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Pediatrician Eva Trujillo says they "literally rewire the brain," decrease brain size, and make it harder to concentrate and to regulate emotions. Malnutrition can slow the metabolism, impact bone density and even lead to cardiac arrest. But Eva says, with the right treatment, people can also recover fully. She's the president of the International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals and co-founder of Comenzar de Nuevo, a leading treatment facility in Latin America. Today on the show, host Emily Kwong talks about the physical and mental impacts of eating disorders with Dr. Trujillo and Moorea Friedman, a teen mental health advocate and host of the podcast Balancing Act. Plus, how to recover in a world steeped in diet culture. (encore)

Want us to cover more mental health topics? Tell us by emailing shortwave@npr.org! We'd love to know what you want to hear from us!

Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave.

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.
0:06.4	Maria Friedman is truly one of the coolest 17-year-olds I've ever met.
0:11.7	We started talking a year ago because she wanted advice on how to start a podcast.
0:16.8	Hello and welcome to Balancing Act, a mental health and wellness and semi-unfiltered podcast.
0:24.2	Our conversation, though, quickly turned to something else that happened to both of us.
0:29.7	We both developed an eating disorder in middle school.
0:33.0	Eating disorders among teenagers skyrocketed during the pandemic.
0:37.4	Marias began during the COVID lockdown.
0:39.8	She was cut off from her peers and spending way more time watching TV. You see the protagonists
0:47.0	and they're all like so beautiful and you're like, do I have to look like that to be worthy, to be lovable?
0:57.1	And Maria, who was already struggling with perfectionism and anxiety, started to feel awful about
1:03.4	herself. The world was spiraling out of control, and now my body was spiraling out of control.
1:08.5	And so what did I try to do? I tried to control it.
1:12.3	Eating disorders among teenagers skyrocketed during the pandemic. From Maria, two servings of pasta,
1:18.5	became one serving of pasta, became no pasta at all. She had intense exercise goals, all in an effort
1:25.9	in her mind to become healthier.
1:27.7	And it was only when we went to the doctor and they're like, no, this isn't healthy.
1:32.5	Your heart isn't doing that well.
1:34.8	You haven't had your period in months where it was like, oh, hey, that's not really healthy.
1:42.9	Eden disorders are hard to put into words, but they are not choices.
1:47.1	They are the neurobiological consequences of an illness that touches all areas of your life.
1:53.0	Eating disorders literally rewired the brain.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.