Candace Cameron Bure Hopes to Instill Positive Body Image in Her Children

05/01/2017 04:06 pm EDT

Candace Cameron Bure has struggled with bulimia in the past and wants to make sure her children do not follow in her path, according to PEOPLE.

The actress opened up about how important it is for her to instill positive body images in her children: daughter Natasha, 18, son Lev, 16, and son Maksim, 14.

"As a mom, I'm always telling my children, 'Love who you are,'" Cameron Bure, 40, said on Wednesday's episode of The Dr. Oz Show. "'You are beautifully and wonderfully made. You are unique and there is no one like you. Embrace it and love it.'"

And if they do have issues, she wants them to know it is okay to ask for help.

"If there is a point of struggle in your life, the first step is to tell someone," she says. "I think that's the hardest thing to do, and once you share it and get it out there, then you can look for ways to recover."

Cameron Bure has slowly rebuilt her own relationship with food and "had to learn to view food as [her] fuel."

She hopes that by being open about her own experiences with the eating disorder, she can help educate others about it.

"I think that there are so many misconceptions about eating disorders," she says. "I think a lot of people look at them as a young teenage girl's disease and they're not. It affects 30 million Americans, and it doesn't discriminate against men, women, age, race, color, nationality."

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