"Healthy Living Bloggers"

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peachyxoxoxo
peachyxoxoxo Posts: 1,178 Member
in Chit-Chat
So I've read a lot of healthy living blogs over the last few years and I even have a blog of my own on tumblr.

However, I recently came across the website I've listed below, and started reading through some of the threads..... and it occurred to me how many of these bloggers have odd, childish, clingy, self-absorbed personalities and/or eating habits that verge on disordered eating:

http://getoffmyinternets.net/gomi-forum/healthy-living-bloggers/

So, I dunno. I feel sorta weird about these blogs now. What do y'all think? :/

Replies

  • eireannyoung
    eireannyoung Posts: 154 Member
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    I do like to read those types of blogs so that I can learn more about alternative nutrition, get ideas for new recipes, etc. I myself have a very restricted diet for reasons that are personal for my own health, but I wouldn't say that I have disordered eating at all. I think it begins to become a problem when people cut out certain food groups and then say that "everyone should eat this way" or "this food is poison and is the entire reason for the downfall of humanity" (LOL), instead of "this is what works for me and may be of interest to those in similar situations".
  • peachyxoxoxo
    peachyxoxoxo Posts: 1,178 Member
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    Like, a good example is a girl on tumblr whose blog is called Undressed Skeleton. She claims to be a healthy weight loss blog and was even going to be a "nutrition advisor" for Seventeen magazine. But she eats like 1000 calories a day, posts all these bizarre recipes like carrots with Jello powder (a snack she eats a lot), and it all seems verrrry disordered to me. It is sad. People look to her as an example of someone whose being healthy, but she really isn't very healthy at all.

    Or Chocolate Covered Katie, who has an entire blog known for healthy twist on "sinful" desserts. And she claims she's not even a dessert person. That makes no sense at all.

    I used to have an ED so these things just seem really suspicious to me... I am familiar with the "tricks" that ED people like to use.
  • waffleflavoredtea
    waffleflavoredtea Posts: 235 Member
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    A lot of healthy living bloggers are people who have disordered pasts or backgrounds and are actually mentally still 'unhealthy'.

    I follow a ton of blogs, especially cooking or fashion blogs. Having an eating disorder myself (ednos) I recognize what these people are doing with their blogs is quite a lot like "partial recovery", where they eat "enough" nutrients/calories (sometimes not actually enough), and seem somewhat energetic and social like a healthy person. It's clear that their 'symptom management' works, but their eating disorder is still hovering. A lot of food bloggers who have ED's would classify themselves as 'recovered', but personally, I believe that they have developed a form of Orthorexia as a form of being able to indulge in their eating disorder but still being able to function somewhat normally in society.

    Most of the time they are pretty harmless if you are not likely to be 'triggered' into being unhealthily influenced. If you feel yourself getting more obsessed or tempted to start cutting out foods or do things that don't feel like something your normal self would do, then it's time to find a different type of blogger. There are a lot of bloggers out there who don't discuss their personal lives, but at some point you have to question if maybe it's not good for you personally to read cooking blogs if you've had any type of disordered past.
  • Kailuen
    Kailuen Posts: 58 Member
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    Like, a good example is a girl on tumblr whose blog is called Undressed Skeleton. She claims to be a healthy weight loss blog and was even going to be a "nutrition advisor" for Seventeen magazine. But she eats like 1000 calories a day, posts all these bizarre recipes like carrots with Jello powder (a snack she eats a lot), and it all seems verrrry disordered to me. It is sad. People look to her as an example of someone whose being healthy, but she really isn't very healthy at all.

    Or Chocolate Covered Katie, who has an entire blog known for healthy twist on "sinful" desserts. And she claims she's not even a dessert person. That makes no sense at all.

    I used to have an ED so these things just seem really suspicious to me... I am familiar with the "tricks" that ED people like to use.


    I read Undressed Skeleton and I was scared for her. :P I agree, sometimes people think they know the best way for weightloss which isn't necessarily the case and then they advocate it. And quite a few are OCD over it.
  • tajmel
    tajmel Posts: 401 Member
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    I read both of those blogs and many others. I like to think I'm healthy enough to pick and choose what I like and don't like. The danger is when I really respect a particular blogger; then, any time they recommend something specific, I find myself considering it seriously without thinking about how reasonable the suggestion may be. I understand how many of these blogs could be triggering. I've never been formally diagnosed with an ED, but I'm prone to all or nothing clean/binge cycles. I spent years oscillating between clean whole foods vegan and complete crap binging.

    I think just bringing this up is helpful. It's important to remember we're all (bloggers included) real people with real problems, histories, insecurities, and compulsions.
  • eireannyoung
    eireannyoung Posts: 154 Member
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    Like, a good example is a girl on tumblr whose blog is called Undressed Skeleton. She claims to be a healthy weight loss blog and was even going to be a "nutrition advisor" for Seventeen magazine. But she eats like 1000 calories a day, posts all these bizarre recipes like carrots with Jello powder (a snack she eats a lot), and it all seems verrrry disordered to me. It is sad. People look to her as an example of someone whose being healthy, but she really isn't very healthy at all.

    Or Chocolate Covered Katie, who has an entire blog known for healthy twist on "sinful" desserts. And she claims she's not even a dessert person. That makes no sense at all.

    I used to have an ED so these things just seem really suspicious to me... I am familiar with the "tricks" that ED people like to use.

    Hmm, I went and looked up both those blogs. I'm not exactly sure about Undressed Skeleton, but Chocolate Covered Katie was a great blog and I bookmarked it for the recipes. She seems a lot like me: someone with a fast metabolism who's not willing to eat unhealthy processed food just to gain weight. She actually said "The fact of the matter is I don’t like sugar; it makes me feel sluggish", she didn't say she wasn't a dessert person. I can completely relate to that because I get the same problem. I'm glad there's someone else out there like me who wants to eat healthy, sweet desserts without feeling hungover the next day from all that sugar. She also stated that her recipes are usually low-calorie for her readers, not for herself (because more people are trying to lose weight than maintain or gain).

    Honestly, sometimes people can be underweight and absolutely love talking about food and health. It doesn't mean that they have an eating disorder. Do you think maybe you're seeing these people through a biased perspective?
  • eireannyoung
    eireannyoung Posts: 154 Member
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    When I first read this post I was thinking that you were talking about crap like this, LOL: http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/how-green-smoothies-can-devastate-your-health/

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