On Wednesday 28 February, during extended Pastoral Care, the Year 10 cohort listened to a Body Image presentation from an accredited practicing dietician, Yasmina Diab. The presentation aimed to build resilience and raise awareness of strategies, skills and factors that help young people develop a healthy relationship with food and their own bodies.

Body dissatisfaction is identified in the Mission Australia Youth Survey (2013) as one of the top ranked issues of concern for young people. Adolescents aged 12-25 are a high-risk group of having body dissatisfaction which could lead to disordered eating. We want our young people to understand the risk factors that lead to body dissatisfaction and to provide strategies and skills to assist in the prevention of disordered eating.

Key messages and strategies from the presentation were:

• Health should be a holistic approach and not just focus on the physical but also the mental, social, emotional, spiritual and cultural.
• Food should not be labelled as ‘good’, ‘bad’, ‘naughty’ yet described as what it is. A banana is a banana, a doughnut is a doughnut and when describing food use descriptive words such as the taste or texture.
• Frame nutrition messages with fuelling the body and mind and to be mindful of how different foods and movement makes you feel.
• Encourage young people to participate in ‘joyful movement’

Aldo Calo, Year 10 Director