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"EATING DISORDERS"

     What is normal eating?  According to Ellyn Satter in her book How to Get Kids to Eat...But Not Too Much , normal eating is being able to eat when you are hungry and continue eating until you are satisfied.  It is being able to choose food you like, eat it and truly get enough of it to feel comfortably full, without overeating or eating to little.  Normal eating is stopping for physical reasons of satiety, not stopping because you think you should.  Normal eating is being able to use your head and taste buds when selecting food and yet not being so restrictive that you miss out on pleasurable foods.  Normal eating takes up some of your time and attention but keeps its place as only one important area of your life.  

     Evidently, if you are thinking about food all day long and obsess over everything you eat, too much time and attention is being paid to food.  Regrettably, society's fixation with thinness, and the media exploitation of it, has only fueled the fire to push one down the path toward an eating disorder.  The desire to become "thin" became one and the same as being healthy, wealthy, beautiful and successful.  When eating disorder specialists trace the underlying reasons that contribute to an eating disorder, time and again the initial stages were rooted in simply dieting to lose weight.  The dieting behavior simply becomes obsessive.  

     The following are types of eating disorders:

• Anorexia Nervosa  Anorexia nervosa is essentially self-starvation, a refusal to maintain a minimally normal weight hence the body usually is excessively thin and may even look withered.  There is an intense obsession with food (especially calories and fats) and a distorted body image.

• Bulimia Nervosa  Bulimia nervosa is a disorder in which frequent episodes of binge eating (rapid consumption of large quantities of food in one sitting) and followed by purging (ridding the body of food) by vomiting, abuse of laxatives or diuretics, compulsively over exercising  and/or fasting.  The bulimic is usually of normal weight or overweight. 

• Binge Eating  Binge eating or compulsive overeating involves uncontrolled eating usually kept in secret.  There may be frequent binges, but unlike bulimics, they do not purge afterward.  The binge eater is usually overweight.  It is estimated that 40% of people who are obese may be binge eaters.

(While there are may be three categories under the heading of eating disorders, it is not uncommon to find people with a combination of the above, such as an anorexic who purges.)

The following are some abnormal eating signs:

• Weight  Either significant weight loss or weight fluctuations of ten pounds or more in a short period of time

• Attitude  Intense fear of becoming fat, distorted body image, preoccupation with body, weight, fat and food or depressed mood

• Physical  Withered extremities, puffiness around face, swollen glands, loss of tooth enamel, bursting blood vessels in the eyes, weakness, headaches, dizziness or loss of hair

     This article is to inform people on different types of eating disorders.  It is in no way trying to cure anyone.  For help with any or all of these issues go to the following:

• Eating Disorders Awareness and Prevention Inc.
  www.edap.org

• Anorexia Nervosa and Related Eating Disorders Inc.
  www.anred.com        1-800-931-2237

• American Anorexia Bulimia Association Inc.
  www.abainc.org