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Home » Diets that Work » Q&A: Carolyn Costin, body image specialist, says diets don’t work

By SAMANTHA MUNSEY Published March 1, 2012 at 12:15am Updated March 1, 2012 at 12:15am

As part of National Eating Disorders Awareness Week and the UAs Love Your Body Day, Campus Health Service hosted a film screening of America the Beautiful 2: The Thin Commandments in Gallagher Theater on Wednesday.

Nationally recognized body image activist and author Carolyn Costin attended the screening. Costin, who contributed to the film and is also the executive director of the Monte Nido eating disorder treatment facility, followed up the film with a discussion session. Before the event, Costin took questions from the

Daily Wildcat about her involvement with the film and her experiences treating eating disorders.

Daily Wildcat: What made you want to get involved with the film?

Costin: I guess in a nutshell, I do a ton of work with people who have eating disorders. So this movie is a way to help with prevention. Its not like seeing the film is going to prevent people from getting eating disorders, but were trying to bring home the message that diets dont work. People need to focus on health as opposed to weight. Our culture sends a lot of messages about weight loss and the importance of being thin, but where is the antidote to that? I think this film is the antidote, just a little bit.

What has been the films response so far?

Its interesting the eating disorder community really embraces it. I found that, at times, the general public had a lot of questions about the film. It stirs them up because it covers a lot of stuff they might not know about. In that way it is kind of cool because when you show it to the eating disorder community, its like preaching to the choir, but when you show it to a college campus or a bigger population its like waking people up.

What do you want people to take away from the film?

Diets dont work. I dont know if viewers will be able to take that away from the watching the film, because the truth is we can say they dont work over and over. Take your health into your own hands. Dont just trust what you read in a magazine and newspaper. Dont just trust what a physician says. Educate yourself and learn ways to take care of yourself.

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Q&A: Carolyn Costin, body image specialist, says diets don’t work

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Home » Diets that Work » Q&A: Carolyn Costin, body image specialist, says diets don’t work