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Julia Jank

Mrs. Miller DE College Composition/B6

Argumentative Essay

01 December 2021

Fad Diets, Misinformation, and Eating Disorders: A Plague Schools can Cure

The root of fad diets and eating disorders extends all the way back to ca. 500-400 B.C (Applegate and

Grivetti). At this time period, you can see how fad diets and misinformation led to the gladiators consuming

certain animals in order to gain specific traits of courage or strength that those animals had (Applegate and

Grivetti). Nowadays, this type of misinformation looks vastly different and spreads further due to the media.

Through this, people find untrue or harmful resources that can promote or push someone to an eating disorder

(Spettigue and Henderson). All in all, it is clear that misinformation in this subject area is a significant threat to

the wellbeing of individuals.

With this in mind, the problem is that all of the misinformation around food and diets can cause eating

disorders and inadequate nutrition and sustainability in adolescents. To combat this issue, we need to offer more

nutrition-based resources and education to the student population of American public elementary, middle, and

high schools, which is possible through the hiring of a school dietitian and the implementation of nutrition

programs.

First, schools should think about hiring a dietitian for the benefit of the students. This plan, which the

American Dietetic Association would agree with, emphasizes this organization’s goals and stresses the

importance of the need for “nutrition integrity,” which is achievable through taking in registered dietitians

(Bergman). The whole purpose of a dietitian in schools would be to provide more easily accessible and correct
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information to students in order to help them make the right decisions in regard to their nutritional needs.

Additionally, the dietitian could even help to foster a healthy and sustainable relationship between the students,

food, and their bodies through counseling and professional advice. This advice would then hopefully prevent

the future formulation of eating disorders and unsustainable habits because it would be easier to get the correct

information. When we consider what Katherine Schulz, a California high school student had to say about fad

diets, we can see the need for this plan. In her statement, she emphasizes the fact that “most people know fad

diets don’t work, but everyone wants an easy solution” (Maynard). If this is the main type of easy and

accessible information provided to teens and adolescents around the country, then there needs to be more

education and increased accessibility to credible health sources in order to push them in the right direction.

Again, we can see Schulz agree with this stance when she implores people to “talk to a doctor or dietitian

instead of listening to a fashion magazine” (Maynard). The whole point of citing this account is to further drive

the point that dietitians are a source that more people should take advantage of. Thus, through this plan, the

individuals most impacted by eating disorders, who, as Dr. Cynthia Bulik states, are primarily in the age range

between fifteen and nineteen, with a more general scope of grouping between the ages of ten and twenty-nine

(Bulik), would then benefit from the resource of a dietitian in public schools from elementary to high school.

However, some might oppose my solution on the premise of cost, funding, and feasibility. They would

take into account that the median pay for dietitians/nutritionists per hour is $30.33 and is $63,090 per year

according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which equals a lot of money (Office of Occupational Statistics

and Employment Projections). That is money which the schools might not have. Compared to the median yearly

pay of regularly hired teachers, which is $62,870 for high school teachers, $60,810 for middle school teachers,

and $60,660 for elementary and kindergarten teachers, you can clearly see that dietitians cost a greater amount

of money (Office of Occupational Statistics and Employment Projections). Furthermore, a study done in South

Korea notes that one of the main “barriers” to the success of school dietitians is the heavy workload that they
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receive (Lee and Hong). This study’s results mean that schools would not be able to glean successful results by

just hiring one dietitian like previously suggested, since one dietitian wouldn’t be able to manage hundreds of

students and their questions. Now, while the opposing side does provide valid points, the plan could be refined

and utilized for the benefit of the students. It is a possibility to get funding from the ADA (The Gale

Encyclopedia of Diets: A Guide to Health and Nutrition), and schools can delegate time into hiring dietitians.

Second, schools should implement nutrition classes/units into all grades from kindergarten to senior

year. Again, as continuously stressed, fad diets can be extremely harmful to a person’s health. Laura Bellows

and Dr. Sean Moore, through Colorado State University’s website, have even stated that about forty-six percent

of teens have admitted that they were trying to lose weight (Bellows and Moore). The researchers also explain

that a lot of the diets and information that a percentage of the people looked at came from misinformed and

unhealthy fad diets (Bellows and Moore). All in all, the number of teens recorded to have been dieting at the

time of the questioning is not okay, and it is even more unhealthy due to the fact that the information many of

them were getting were from fad diets that don’t give all of the necessary nutrients to individuals (Current

Health 2, a Weekly Reader publication). In other words, if they want to get healthier, provide them with the

education and information to do so. Now, the whole point of this specific plan is to provide students with the

correct information and to cover the fallacies of new fad diets each year in order to prevent students from

following them. Also, the plan would hopefully decrease eating disorders and unsustainability in the students,

whilst simultaneously promoting healthy eating habits. In a sense, these classes would at least provide true,

basic information and resources to everyone that would influence their perceptions and overall knowledge of

nutrition.

On the other hand, people might question the cultural and ethical concerns that could pertain to this plan.

First, parents and other individuals could argue that making this education mandatory for younger grades is

unethical. These people would argue that providing them this education at such an early age could cause them
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to over-worry and develop eating disorders, since they would have to enter the world of health information and

fad diets even though they might not have the mental capacity to logically process all of the information they

receive. Now, acknowledging these viable concerns is something that needs to happen. Thus, that just means

that schools would have to contemplate the possibility of an opt-out form. Finally, there are some cultural

aspects of this plan that some would state are unfair to certain students. Some students, being of different

cultures, might not learn or benefit as much as other students since they eat different staple foods than what

Americans would. Since this plan mainly focuses on U.S. schools, there is a possibility that the course content

would focus mainly on foods in the U.S. diet. Yet, in order to solve this concern, schools would just need to

weave in more information that would be useful to different cultures, and having specific units that focus on the

cultural differences that exist within the realm of nutrition can fix this issue. All in all, all of these are valid

concerns of our society, and even a quick search on google can show the prevalence of these issues in

individuals’ minds.

All things considered, there needs to be some movement to improve the level of nutritional knowledge

and resources for students. These kids are at a point in their lives where fad diets and misinformation can easily

influence them, which is why schools need to take the step to help them in order to prevent eating disorders and

unsustainable habits. Schools can start to lay out or implement certain plans to do so by hiring a registered

dietitian and by providing authorized nutrition classes for each grade level. While there are some concerns in

regards to the feasibility, cultural inclusion, and ethicality of these plans, there are possible measures to take that

can improve them in order to glean a desired result for all.

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Works Cited

"American Dietetic Association ." The Gale Encyclopedia of Diets: A Guide to Health and Nutrition.

Encyclopedia.com. https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/encyclo pedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-ma

ps/american-dietetic-association.

Applegate, Elizabeth, and Louis E. Grivetti. “Search for the Competitive Edge: “A History of Dietary Fads and

Supplements.” The Journal of Nutrition, vol.127. pp. 869S-873S. 01 May 1997. Oxford University

Press, https://academic.oup.com/jn/article/127/5/869S/4724164?login=true

Bellows, L., and R. Moore. “Nutrition Misinformation: How to Identify Fraud and Misleading Claims - 9.350.”

Colorado State University Extension, Colorado State University Extension, 7 Mar. 2016, https:// extens i

on.colostate.edu/topic-areas/nutrition-food-safety-health/nutrition-misinformation-how-to-identify-

fraud-and-misleading-claims-9-350/.

Bergman, Ethan. “Position of the American Dietetic Association: Local Support for Nutrition Integrity in

Schools.” Journal of the American Dietetic Association. vol. 110. Aug. 2020. Elsevier, https://www .sc i

encedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0002822310006504.

Bulik, Cynthia. “Eating Disorders in Adolescents and Young Adults.” Child & Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics,

Elsevier Inc., 01 April 2002, https://www. childpsych.theclinics.com/article/S10 56-4993(01)00004- 9/ f

ulltext#relatedArticles.

Lee, Jounghee, and Youngsun Hong. “Identifying Barriers to the Implementation of Nutrition Education in

South Korea.” 2015. Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition, vol. 24, no. 3, HEC Press, 2015, pp.

533–539, https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/ielapa.534304581244616.

Maynard, Cindy. "Fad Diets Can Be Unhealthy." Dieting, edited by Auriana Ojeda, Greenhaven Press, 2003.
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Teen Decisions. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/ EJ3010 30520 3/OVI

C?u=viva2_gcc&sid=bookmark-OVIC&xid=bae8c1cd. Accessed 2 Nov. 2021. Originally published as

"Fad Diets: A Reality Check," Current Health 2, Jan. 2000.

Office of Occupational Statistics and Employment Projections. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. https://www.bls

.gov/ooh/.

Spettigue, Wendy and Katherine A. Henderson. “Eating Disorders and the Role of the Media.” National Center

for Biotechnology Information. U.S. National Library of Information. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pm

c/articles/PMC2533817/.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. “Dietitians and Nutritionists.” Office of Occupational Statistics and

Employment Projections. 8 Sep. 2021, https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/dietitians-and-nutritionists.ht

m.

"What you need to know about fad diets: find out the promises and pitfalls of some common fad diets." Current

Health 2, a Weekly Reader publication, vol. 30, no. 1, Sept. 2003, pp. 16+. Gale In Context: Opposing

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e85ff2b. Accessed 31 Oct. 2021.