27/04/2026
The realisation that the factors which caused me to become obsessed with my weight are still happening 20 years later was a very sad reality from the recent Eating Disorder & Education APPG Roundtable.
We have over 20 years of research telling us what works. We have the evidence, the data, and the blueprints. Yet, in so many classrooms, we’re still seeing the same outdated policies that prioritise metrics over a child’s wellbeing.
The routine weighing, the calorie counting in maths, the policing of lunchboxes... it feels like we’re stuck in a loop of doing what’s always been done, even when we know it can be harmful.
In this week’s episode of Full of Beans with Dr Hannah Lewis (), we dive into what happened at our recent Parliamentary Roundtable what we need to do to enact positive change.
We talk about:
🤝🏻 Why 20 years of science still hasn’t become a national standard in the UK curriculum.
💭 How “clean plate” policies and surveillance in the canteen impact our relationship with food, highlighted by from .
⚡ The training gap causing mental health teams to lack needed tools to handle body image or eating disorders.
🔄 How clinical thresholds are moving into schools and preventing chldren from getting help before things get worse.
🧠 Why prevention must be sensory-sensitive and culturally inclusive to actually work.
💛 The next steps of writing an open letter to Parliament to turn these talks into real policy.
Something that really stayed with me from this conversation is that prevention isn’t about asking teachers to be doctors. It’s about whole school approaches where a child’s worth isn’t tied to a BMI chart or a “clean” lunchbox and catching the distress before it becomes a crisis.
🎧 Listen on your fave podcast platform or watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/B7pQ3MlAJrE
Thank you to for sponsoring Full of Beans and for for inviting us along to the APPG. Please check out their website for more details.
