“Thinspo” is a dangerous trend of digital content that promotes the pursuit of thinness by endorsing problematic attitudes toward body image, fitness, and restrictive eating through the encouragement of disordered eating behavior.1 Thinspo content includes all forms of digital content, such as images, videos, and memes, and has become very common in social media.

Bodies come in all shapes and sizes, with everything from genetics to family history and environment playing a role in how we look. But sadly, in many cultures—and especially Western cultures—that same body diversity is not widely reflected in popular media or even sometimes in medical research.

See what AI thinks the human body should look like based on social media and the World Wide Web.

Back to Our Research Library

As science, medicine, and culture continue to evolve, more attention has been paid to the concept of addiction and the biological and psychological mechanisms that lead to these types of unhelpful, compulsive behaviors.

Clean eating is popular in our culture and is viewed as a “healthier” way of eating. It entails eating whole foods, such as fruits, vegetables, meats, seafood, eggs, whole grains, and nuts, and avoiding processed and packaged foods. 

Because this version of “healthy eating” recommends limiting or eliminating certain foods, food groups, or ingredients, it is a diet and can slide down the slippery slope into an eating disorder.

Our current healthcare model centers on body weight as a measure of health. However, weight is not a valid gauge of health, and this misconception is stigmatizing and harmful to higher-weight individuals.

Eating disorders are mental illnesses defined by abnormal dietary habits, such as eating excessively small or large amounts of food, that have the potential to cause major physical and mental problems. Most common eating disorders are anorexia, bulimia and binge eating disorder.

Diabulimia is intentional insulin restriction. People with diabulimia skip or shrink their insulin doses to lose weight.

Most people with diabulimia have type 1 diabetes. Some doctors call the condition type 1 diabetes with disordered eating (T1DE) or eating disorder diabetes mellitus type 1 instead. There is no official diagnostic term, as this condition is relatively new and poorly understood.

While some people may be concerned that they aren’t getting enough exercise, there is such a thing as too much exercise. Regular exercise can be great for physical and mental health, if it is medically appropriate and done in combination with adequate rest and nutrition, but when exercise becomes a compulsion, it can become physically and mentally harmful.