An Impossible Task?: Preventing Disordered Eating in the Context of the Current Obesity Panic

Currently, in Canada and elsewhere in the West, policy makers address issues of health and wellness of the population mostly through campaigns focused on individual lifestyles, namely ‘healthy eating’ and ‘active living’. This chapter takes a critical stance with regards to this particular health promotion framework and argues that campaigns focused on individuals’ lifestyles in fact contribute to increased disordered eating and growing body anxieties among the general population.