Eating Disorder Awareness

Luke Charters Excerpts

Tuesday 1st April 2025 Westminster Hall

[Mr Luke Charters (York Outer) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to speak with you in the Chair, Mr Stuart. I pay tribute to the hon. Member for Bath (Wera Hobhouse) for securing this debate, and of course my hon. Friend the Member for Camborne and Redruth (Perran Moon); he is an inspirational dad with an inspirational daughter, and we all wish his family well.

I will speak about eating disorders affecting young men and boys. We need to focus on online influencers and the impact they can have on eating disorders, so of course I must mention the TV show “Adolescence”. An under-discussed theme of the series was the 13-year-old boy’s concern about his own body image, driven by social media. Recent research shows that eating disorders are growing at a faster rate in young men—a concerning trend.

Over the last few years we have seen toxic influencers drive false expectations about what young men should look like, and some young boys are being diagnosed with a lesser condition called bigorexia or muscle dysmorphia. Bigorexia drives boys to engage in extreme behaviours such as excessive weightlifting for their age, steroid use and excessive dieting and supplement intakes, all in pursuit of a totally unattainable ideal.

“Gym bros” and fitness influencers are giving impressionable young men and boys a false sense of security about many products. Paediatric science is uncertain about the effects of the intake of those products in children, and there are dangerous mental health scenarios as children clamour for them. Such products are often marketed with cheap deals and attractive flavours, such as blazing berry or creatine candy.

Another issue is the lack of advertising regulation. Ever-younger children are having that content pushed their way, resulting in a detrimental impact on their lives as they chase an unrealistic body type. This week I am writing to Ofcom and the Advertising Standards Authority, requesting that they review the current guidelines for advertising creatine supplements, low-carb diets and more, all of which I believe are harmful for children.

However, we also need positive role models and influencers, particularly in those sport, who can reach the young male demographics most at risk. There should be more airtime for Gareth Southgate than for Andrew Tate.

As my son grows up, I say to him, “Being a man in modern Britain is about how you behave, not how you’re built; how you express yourself, not what you eat, and how you support others, not how you suppress your emotions.” Whether we are grandparents, parents, aunties, uncles or anything else, we all want to see the next generation make misogyny extinct, so I make one final request today: it would be fantastic if the Minister could meet me to discuss my campaign to stop the selling of supplements and creatine to children.

I have a second son on the way this summer, and I want my boys to grow up to be respectful of women and confident and comfortable in themselves.

[Graham Stuart (in the Chair)]

The winding-up speeches begin with Jess Brown-Fuller.