What eating disorders do to the brain and body

Life Kit

NPR

Health & Fitness, Self-improvement, Kids & Family, Education, Business

4.3 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 14 August 2025

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Eating disorders are complicated illnesses that are often misunderstood. Dr. Eva Trujillo, a specialist in eating disorders, says eating disorders "literally rewire the brain," decrease brain size and make it harder to concentrate and regulate emotions. Emily Kwong, host of NPR's Short Wave, talks about the physical and mental impacts of eating disorders and how to recover in a world steeped in diet culture.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This message comes from how to be a better human, a podcast from TED.
0:04.4	Even if you're a self-help skeptic, you'll find inspiration to improve your life from fascinating in-depth conversations with TED speakers.
0:12.9	Find how to be a better human wherever you listen.
0:18.5	You're listening to Life Kit from NPR.
0:23.9	Hey, it's Mariel.
0:25.3	Today we're bringing you an episode about eating disorders from our friends over at
0:29.5	Shortwave.
0:30.7	Shortwave host, Emily Kwong, talks to pediatrician Eva Trujillo about how eating disorders
0:36.5	can impact the body and brain, about the
0:39.1	influence of diet culture, and about what recovery looks like. Here's the episode.
0:46.2	Maria Friedman is truly one of the coolest 17-year-olds I've ever met. We started talking a year
0:52.7	ago because she wanted advice on how to start a
0:54.7	podcast. Hello and welcome to Balancing Act, a mental health and wellness and semi-unfiltered podcast.
1:04.1	Our conversation, though, quickly turned to something else that happened to both of us. We both
1:09.9	developed an eating disorder in middle school.
1:12.8	Eating disorders among teenagers skyrocketed during the pandemic.
1:17.1	Marias began during the COVID lockdown.
1:19.6	She was cut off from her peers and spending way more time watching TV.
1:24.6	You see the protagonists and they're all like so beautiful and you're like, do I have to look like that to be worthy, to be lovable?
1:36.9	And Maria, who was already struggling with perfectionism and anxiety, started to feel awful about herself.
1:43.8	The world was spiraling out of control and now my body was spiraling out of control.
1:48.3	And so what did I try to do?
	...

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