[Exerpt from The Citizen, 17th February 2020]
Head of food and nutrition services at the Aga Khan Hospital Dar es Salaam, Nimtaz Walji, also a nutritionist, tells Life&Style that body shaming happens everywhere starting from one’s own home and extends to schools, societies and beyond. It is a huge problem especially among teenagers and a problem that damages ones self-esteem.
According to Ms Walji, she gets parents who complain about their children being bullied because of how they look, however, in her observation a lot of times, the parents and families are actually the ones who intentionally or unintentionally shame their children for having underweight or overweight bodies or for genetic disfigures and they are the ones who begin creating this expectation on their children.
The nutritionist says there are two ways to overcome a negative body image.
“First is by making one accept who they are and accept how they look through counselling and be okay about that and the second way is to help them in changing their physical situation if at all it needs to be changed. This is only possible if the person him/herself accepts their body to be what the society describes it to be,” she adds.
Ms Walji adds that there are techniques which she uses to help clients with a problem like this but it depends on whether it’s about body shaming to those who are in control of their body looks or not.
“For example, body shaming of a teenager who is actually obese due to over eating vs body shaming a teenager who is short genetically. If it is something in control then I think it begins with understanding what and how the client perceives the problems and then convincing them to accept what it is and how it happens and that there is a way to solve it. Once there is acceptance, we can work on making the client take responsibility for changing the same through adopting a healthy lifestyle,” she notes.
Many people don’t like their bodies due to the societal expectation of how one’s body should be. “I am not saying that it is okay to be obese but I am saying that it is not ok to shame that person for being obese as this is what makes people often not like how they look. It is about what the society tells you about yourself in many instances that makes you feel like you are not good enough,” Ms Walji explains.
Read the full article on The Citizen here.
Thanks for reading! Nimtaz values healthier lifestyles and believes that we can achieve meaningful development by eating effectively.
Photo by Baran Lotfollahi on Unsplash