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Last Updated: Dec 27th, 2006 - 19:07:47 |
What are eating disorders?
Eating disorders refer to abnormal eating practices that get out of control and cause harm physically and emotionally. People suffer from eating disorders often when they eat food as a way to deal with certain social, emotional or psychological stresses. Eating disorders can cause serious physical and emotional damage.
Basically, there are three major eating disorders, namely, anorexia, binge eating disorder, and bulimia.
Anorexia is an eating disorder that mainly affects girls and young women who have an intense fear of gaining weight and therefore limit the food they eat. These people are persistently unwilling to eat, and thus they lose a lot of body weight by controlling the food they eat. The eating disorder can also be accompanied by excessive exercise, self-induced vomiting, malnutrition, and/or amenorrhea.
Binge eating disorder is a more common condition that millions of Americans may experience. People with binge eating disorder often eat large amounts of food, and feel their urge to eat is too intense to control. No one knows for sure exactly what causes this eating disorder but the consequences can be serious. People with binge eating disorder can gain weight, which can in turn cause many medical problems such as type-2 diabetes, hypertension, heart disease or even some types of cancer.
Bulimia nervosa or simply bulimia is a type of eating disorder where someone eats a lot of food quickly and then purges it to prevent weight gain. Purging can be achieved by self-induction, laxatives, or pills. The purging causes loss of minerals such as sodium, potassium and magnesium - all useful electrolytes that participate in the regulation of muscle impulses.
Causes of eating disorders
Eating disorders can start with a preoccupation with food and weight. They can be caused by a host of behavioral, emotional, psychological, interpersonal and social factors. Also, people with certain genetic makeup are prone to eating disorders.
Psychological factors include low self-esteem, depression, anxiety, anger and loneliness. Interpersonal factors include troubled family and/or interpersonal relationships, lack of emotional outlet, sensitiveness to body size and/or weight, or experience of sexual or physical abuse. Social factors include cultural pressure that values thinness and place value on the "perfect body", misguided perception of beauty or social norms that value people based on their physical dimensions.
Biological Factors.
It largely remains to be explored why people from certain families are more prone to eating disorders, while others are not.
A study of hundreds of families published in the Sept. 8, part B issue of the American Journal of Medical Genetics indicates that people with eating disorders have their genetic basis. The researchers found six core characteristics including perfectionism, anxiety and age at first menstrual period, concern over mistakes, food-related obsessions and lifetime minimum body weight, some of which were linked with certain genes in the study.
For instance, certain genes or chromosomes are particularly linked with bulimia and less with anorexia or with both. An area of chromosome 10 linked with bulimia was also linked with obesity. Certain genes responsible for obesity were also responsible for both anorexia and bulimia.
Prevention of Eating Disorders
The National Eating Disorders Association recommends the following to prevent children from eating disorders:
1) Display positive, healthy attitudes and behaviors in front of your children and educate them that the diversity of human body shapes and sizes has a genetic basis and teach them how to handle prejudice;
2) Do not mislead your children to believe that you overvalue beauty and body shape. Do not tease or ridicule their body shapes and sizes; Avoid negative comment on weight and shape;
3) Convey the message that unnatural dieting to alter body shape and size could be dangerous, encourage them to exercise, and eat a moderate yet, nutritionally balanced diet;
4) Form a habit of exercising, not purely for weight loss or keeping shape;
5) Get used to public attention to your shape and size. Do not avoid showing up in places where you may draw attention from others;
6) Try to take people seriously for what they say, feel, and do, not for how they appear. Try to disassociate success with appearance;
7) Educate boys about the various forms of violence against women and their responsibilities for preventing it;
8) Encourage children to be active and enjoy themselves;
9) Help children to resist the influence from media on their views of power, excitement and sexuality;
10) Cultivate your children's' self-esteem and self-respect.
© 2004-2005 by foodconsumer.org unless otherwise specified
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