Body image is the mental picture a person forms of their own body, encompassing perceptions of shape, size, weight, and appearance, as well as the feelings attached to those perceptions. It has cognitive, affective, and behavioural components and is shaped by culture, media, family attitudes, and personal experience. A healthy body image involves realistic self-appraisal; a distorted or negative one is associated with disordered eating, low self-esteem, and conditions such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia. Nutrition practitioners often address body image alongside dietary counselling because food attitudes and self-image influence one another, and interventions that improve body acceptance can support more stable, healthful eating patterns.