My awesome friend Susan (who is beautiful, talented and one heck of a great cook!) sent me this link from the whimsically named blog “Feed Me!”. 
The blog authoress, Harriet Brown, writes about Harvard University removing dietary ingredient and calorie/fat gram count signs from their dining halls in response to a protest from folks worried about those students (and faculty members, I suppose) with eating disorders.
Do check it out.  It’s a food fight that was won by the right people!

We all know that females can be downright cruel when it comes to making fun of other women based on appearance.  On college campuses, that attitude (in my experience) seems to be magnified a trillion (or so) times.
This leads me to wonder… do college gals tend to help or hinder other college gals, especially those struggling with body image problems or full-fledged eating disorders?  Do they just avoid asking roommates why they vomit after every meal?  Do they ignore obvious signs and symptoms of anorexia?  Do they just chalk it up to the “freshman fifteen” when a binge-eating coed starts …read more

In August, a post I wrote about whether or not death was a motivator in recovery soared to the top of the Breaking the Mirror statistics. 
I highly respect the thoughtful comments that it has generated thus far and invite you to contribute to the discussion. 
For example: 

Are you afraid enough of dying to stop your disordered eating ways? 
Does death scare you? 
Do you actually wish for death so you can escape from ana or mia?  (If so, I would recommend contacting the national suicide hotline — 1-800-SUICIDE.  Please.  We need you.)

I received an email (excerpted below) from a male who is suffering from at least one eating disorder plus post-partum depression. 
Because he lives half a continent away, I couldn’t direct him to any local resources.  Therefore, I asked for his permission to reprint part of his note here in the hopes that someone else (perhaps you?) might have some good advice.
This is an honest, candid look at how difficult it is for men with issues surrounding body image and food.  Please respond with kindness and understanding.  My thanks to him for getting in touch.
“…i just came across a couple of your postings …read more

We’ve been talking about songs here, so I wanted to throw out a question…
Do you think songs could be good therapy for an anorexic or bulimic?  Could they help him or her out of a funk?
OR
Do you think that songs can trigger ana and mia, especially when they are tunes from the era in which the person had a raging eating disorder?
Discuss…

Maybe you’re already familiar with Ana or her “sister”, Mia (aka, anorexia and bulimia).  Maybe not.  Regardless, I’m certain that even those among us who are disordered eaters have questions.
In a quest for real, honest answers, I’d like to start a new feature here at Breaking the Mirror called “Ask Ana”. 
The premise is simple — if you have a burning question about eating disorders, body image, et cetera, please leave it in the comments section of this page -OR- privately email it to me at lemonpepr(at)aol(dot)com. 
As I receive questions, I’ll post them here for us all to discuss based on …read more

I’m not really a firm believer in Astrology, but it’s always fascinated me.
As a Sagittarius and a fire sign, I’m very passionate about what I do, and I’m a bit of a perfectionist.
So could my eating disorder and disordered eating tendencies have been nudged along because I was born at a certain time of the year?
Tell me — what is your sign?  I wonder if we’ll find any significant correlations between where our birth dates fall according to the zodiac and what kind of eating disorder we’ve had?
Photo: Newscom