Love Your Food

Would you even know if someone close to you was suffering from an eating disorder?  Just because you see your friend having a snack or they never refuse something to eat, doesn’t mean they aren’t suffering alone.  That apple you saw your friend eating when you were hanging out could have been the only thing the she ate the entire day.  Sometimes we have to look a little bit deeper at signs that someone could be giving us that we might otherwise brush off.

The percentage of people that suffer from an eating disorder is between 3 and 4%.  And sadly many of those people NEVER get help or treatment for their disorder.  National Eating Disorder Association gives a great list of a few signs to look out for if you think someone close to you might be suffering.  Things like increased exercise, always talking about weight concerns, or maybe they show some strange behaviors while eating or after eating.  These are all small things that we can look for or notice for us to realize that our friend might need help.

If you feel like someone close to you might be having trouble with food, you should talk to them or talk to a professional that can offer some help.  Things like mood swings or the want to exercise all the time might not see like a big deal, but it could be.  Now we aren’t saying that just because someone is in a bad mood one day or wants to go to the gym for a while longer than usual doesn’t mean they could be suffering.  The concern comes when these things become a regular pattern in their life.  Many websites such as Alsana have free resources that you can look into in order to see what the next steps could be for helping seek your friend treatment.  You can talk to a professional or someone that you trust in order to do it the right way to ensure they get the help and treatment they deserve.  

When we think of eating disorders our brains automatically go to the thought of people not eating and “starving themselves” in order to either loose weight or stay where they are in regards to their weight.  While that is a big portion of eating disorders, they aren’t the only kind of issues people have with food.  Some people have eating disorders that make them not want to stop eating.  Some people have an overly strong relationship with food. They use food as a comfort tool in order make them happier or help them forget about what’s going on in in the world.  In regards to people that might have an eating disorder that could make them obese and unhealthy, there are a few treatments that are beneficial for them.  Medical nutrition therapy is used to help treat certain conditions.  What is Medical Nutrition Therapy talks about what this therapy is used for and how it can help certain patients.  When someone suffers from a disorder that might make them resort to food too often, it is important to teach them the good and the bad about food.  These patients need to learn how to eat healthy and how to get their nutrition on target so that the food they are eating is helping and not harming them.  Binge eating is one of these disorders that can be extremely harmful to the body.  Eating Disorder Hope explains a few of the health consequences of binge eating.  Things like heart disease, high cholesterol and diabetes are all things on the table when someone has a disorder like this.  Binge eating is usually when some over over indulges in food all at once.  Many times much thought doesn’t go into these “meals,” it’s just more what they can get their hands on at the time.  Teaching someone about food and about the nutrition and the importance to be aware of what you’re putting in your body can be a good first step at treatment and recovery.

When you think of an eating disorder we clearly think of the physical process of cooking food and eating it.  Many times our minds go straight to things like bulimia being a physical sickness, because of the physical act of eating and then vomiting the food up after.  Although someone who suffers from a disorder like bulimia is looks like their disorder is very much affecting only their physical well being, it also greatly affects their mental health as well.  Many times eating disorders begin because of someones altered mental state.  They see themselves looking very different in their eyes than someone else sees them.  Their brain is telling them they’re not beautiful or they weigh too much, when of course they are beautiful no matter what.  But they don’t see that they might actually be extremely under weight and unhealthy due to these kinds of illnesses.

You would think an eating disorder where someone didn’t want to eat or was throwing their food up after they eat it, would be so simple to treat.  Because someone like me or you who doesn’t suffer from an eating disorder and maybe LOVES a good meal, wonders why someone wouldn’t want to eat.  But it’s not that simple.  We can’t just tell someone suffering that they really need to be eating in order to give their bodies what it needs and in order to stay as healthy as possible.  According to Mental Health America one of the most effective treatments for eating disorders is some form of psychotherapy.  The psychotherapy can help the now patient who is trying to recover from these types of illness realize that there may be some underlying personal issues that lead to this diagnosis.  Very Well Mind talks about how a nutritionist is another very important professional in the recovery process from one eating disorder.  A nutritionist can help to establish a good healthy relationship with food and to make sure that the proper nutrients and vitamins are getting into the body to start the process towards a healthier lifestyle.  A lot of times we don’t realize how much of a role mental health plays in just about any diagnosis that someone could be given.

I think when people think of an eating disorder, the image that pops into their mind is a teenage girl whose been called “fat” by the kids at school.  In a way there is a stereotype around eating disorders, we always associate them with females.  Just like everything else in this world, eating disorders can effect EVERYONE, not just females.  I’m not sure if it’s because we think of men loving food, always eating a lot, going out for wings and beers for the game, but in reality that isn’t the case for all males.  

According to The Journal of Treatment & Prevention males are under diagnosed and under treated in the scheme of eating disorders. One of the challenges for treating males with eating disorders first comes from the fact that many treatment plans and programs have been geared towards females.  The research of eating disorders in males needs massive amounts of improvements in order to treat males that are diagnosed successfully.  I think the reason that there hasn’t been much research done on males with these disorders is because of the stereotype that only females suffer from these diagnosis’s. We think a lot of time that men don’t care about their appearance as much as females do therefore why would they care if they didn’t look perfect all the time.  But a man’s brain can be just as sensitive as a female’s when thinking about these things.  

Not only is the stigma of eating disorders in men seen throughout society, a lot of men think that way in their own minds.  They believe that they either don’t have an eating disorder, or that it wouldn’t be “manly” enough to seek help if they are having an issue.  This stems from the fact that as far back as anyone can remember, boys weren’t supposed to cry, they weren’t supposed to get hurt, they weren’t supposed to ask for help, even if they needed it.  It’s horrible that people have to suffer alone because they wouldn’t want someone to judge them and have negatives comments towards them because of something they might not even be able to control themselves.  

Recent studies have shown that eating disorders are in fact becoming more sex-neutral, meaning that both males and females are suffering from them.  According to Current Opinion in Psychiatry there has been research that has shown other major factors have played a part in the development in these eating disorders.  Things such as social status and prenatal influences play a part in the diagnosis of an eating disorder.  From that research we can tell that it’s not only effecting the girls who are being called fat in school and are trying everything they can to loose the weight to look like everyone else.  It is also affecting the boys in school who might not be experiencing the “bullying” aspect that causes them to develop these disorders, it might come from other aspects of their life or even the negative thoughts they have about themselves in their own head.

I think it’s really important for us as a society to realize that pretty much anything can affect anyone.  We should stop thinking about certain illnesses and disorders only affecting one group of people, because if we aren’t diagnosing the other portion of the population because they are male, we really aren’t even certain who is affected.

I feel as though there is a very negative stigma surrounding eating disorders.  A lot of people think that someone who suffers from an eating disorder is probably just “trying to loose weight,” or “craving attention from anyone who will give it.”  It’s actually something much more serious and I don’t think we talk about it enough and teach the youth enough about eating disorders, because if we’re being completely honest it’s a serious disease that can have serious consequences.  I don’t think many of us realize how many eating disorders there are that someone can be diagnosed with, or really if they even know the definition of an eating disorder.  According to the American Psychiatric Association, an eating disorder is an illness in which people experience severe disturbances in their eating behaviors related to thoughts and emotions.  I think many people would actually find it quite interesting that this information came from the American Psychiatric Association, being that psychiatric is dealing with the mind and the brain.  When we think eating, obviously we think of us psychically putting something into our body’s through our mouth so how could the brain be involved? The interesting thing about an eating disorder is that a lot of times it does stem from the brain.  The brain is the most powerful part of the body.  It can play the greatest tricks on someone.  If your brain is telling you that somethings is wrong with your body, it doesn’t look the way it should, you’re going to believe it. We don’t realize sometimes how true the saying “easier said than done” really is.  You can tell someone all day long that they look beautiful, they look amazing, they don’t need to loose weight, they don’t have to worry, but until that person believes it themselves; that’s the only time that something will change.  Some people who have eating disorders develop them because they almost see themselves a different way than the rest of the world might view them.  They might be a physically thin individual, but when they look in the mirror they see someone who is “overweight, fat, obese etc.”  If the traditional diet and exercise isn’t giving them the results that they’re looking for the next best option they think would be to maybe stop eating all together.  When you stop eating all together it greatly effects every part of your life.  It makes it hard for you brain to work properly, your emotions and hormones become all out of whack, or it might just be hard to complete simple every day to day life tasks.  Many people don’t realize how severely an eating disorder can impact your health.  The Mayo Clinic explains how eating disorders can harm the heart, digestive system, bones, teeth & mouth, and lead to many other diseases.  When someone isn’t receiving the proper nutrients for whatever reason, many aspects of their life can become compromised.  People that haven’t had to deal with eating disorders might not understand how someone could just “not eat”, or force themselves to throw up after they finish a meal.  Because what’s the point of eating the meal if you’re going to just throw it back up after?  We don’t realize that it’s almost uncontrollable, and without the proper professional guidance, an eating disorder can do serious damage to someone’s life.