New Approach to Combating Disordered Eating Great Success

New Approach to Combating Disordered Eating Great Success

EDEN joined forces with Amazon Boardstore and Sachie’s Kitchen to raise awareness about a growing problem

EDEN, New Zealand’s eating difficulties support and health promotion service, joined together with Amazon Boardstore Parnell and Sachie’s Kitchen, to hold a ‘Love Your Body – Cook and Skate’ event on the 11th December 2011.

Using skating and sushi to raise awareness about disordered eating is a first. EDEN Manager, Deb Schwarz, explains, “EDEN promotes a view of health indexed to wellbeing, not weight. The combination of skate lessons with communal cooking and eating shows that health practices of living actively and eating a range of nutritional food can be fun for everyone.”

The event showcased EDEN’s Body Image Leaders (BILs). ‘Our BILS are teenage volunteers trained to promote health messages in their schools and work towards preventing disordered eating, appearance bullying, and body image issues. These messages include; ways to improve body image, critical thinking, health and wellbeing, living actively and eating a range of nutrition,’ Deb Schwarz says.

Sachie Nomura of Asian Cooking School, Sachie’s Kitchen, is highly supportive of this initiative, ‘The work EDEN do in the community is so important. We have all had, at some point in our lives, body image issues; particularly in relation to what we see in the media on TV, in magazines and the like, so it’s a cause the team at Sachie’s Kitchen believe we can all relate to’.

At the Love Your Body event, the BILs received skating lessons from pro-skaters Simon Thorp and Adam Wharekawa and learnt to make sushi with the team at Sachie’s Kitchen.

EDEN Health Promotion Coordinator, Marcela Cameron says, “It was exciting to see the BILs practicing what they teach to students. They run health classes, assemblies and events like Love Your Body and work so hard promoting health in their schools. They deserve an opportunity to have some fun with food and physical activity.”

About EDEN:
EDEN is a non-profit community agency based in Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand. For the past 21 years EDEN has provided support for eating difficulties and health promotion services. For more information see www.eden.org.nz.

ENDS

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