To eat nutritious foods and feel comfortable in your body is certainly a good thing. But once you focus too much on what you eat, when you eat, and how much you eat to the point where it affects your life and hinders your ability to function well, then you might have an eating disorder. Eating Disorders are a range of conditions expressed through abnormal or disturbed eating habits, sometimes a mental disorder marked by an obsession with food or body shape and it is most common usually to women.

 Here are some of the precipitating and predisposing factors affecting a person to develop eating disorders:

Psychological: Low self-esteem, sentiments of insufficiency or need of control in life, sadness, uneasiness, outrage and loneliness.

Interpersonal: Troubled personal relationship, difficulty expressing emotions and feelings, history of being teased or ridiculed or bullied based on body size or weight, history of physical or sexual abuse.

Social: Social weights that commend “thinness” or strength and put esteem on getting the “perfect body”, narrow definitions of beauty that incorporate as it were ladies and men of particular weights and shapes, social standards that esteem individuals on the premise of physical appearance and not inner qualities and strengths, stretch related to racial, ethnic, size/weight-related or other forms of discrimination or preference.

 Biological: Scientists are still investigating possible biochemical or biological causes of eating disorders. In some people with eating disorders, certain chemicals within the brain that control starvation, craving, and digestion have been found to be unbalanced. The precise meaning and suggestions of these imbalances stay beneath examination. Eating disorders often run in families. Current research shows that there are significant genetic contributions to eating disorders.

Eating disorders consist of anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating clutter, and avoidant prohibitive nourishment intake disorder. There was a moment as it was to substance-abuse disarranges to having the most elevated mental ailment mortality rate. While mortality related with anorexia nervosa has long been recognized, more as of late disarranges already categorized as “eating disorder not otherwise specified,” and presently categorized as “other feeding or eating disorders,” are detailed to be most predominant and to have the highest mortality compared to any types of an eating disorder. Malnutrition due to under- and overconsumption of energy-producing macronutrients (carbohydrates, proteins, fats) and/or micronutrients relative to the individual’s needs is a concern relative to the aforementioned disorders. Moreover, eating disorder behaviors may affect the bioavailability of micronutrients (vitamins and minerals). The result may be overt supplement insufficiencies like anemia, constant weakness, decreased immune function, loss of lean body mass, and altered brain function. Patients may also be at a greater risk for inflammatory yet non-communicable diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and a few cancers.

Eating disorders can however be managed with small frequent feedings, consideration of one’s food preferences, choosing between calorie-dense foods and beverages compared to those that lack nutrients, drinking of liquids half an hour before eating instead of with meals, serving food attractively when taste and smell perceptions are altered, opting to bland foods rather than highly flavored foods as better tolerated, and encouraging dining with friends, peers or family in pleasant surroundings.

If you are anxious that you or someone you care about is experiencing an eating disorder, it is vital to make an appointment with a health professional as soon as possible like a dietitian, psychologist, or psychiatrist who can certainly provide a concrete diagnosis. Early intervention and strong support system are the utmost effective actions for long-term yet effective and promising recovery.

ZSP PNFP- Karla P. Calapardo, RND

References:

• Understanding nutritional needs of patients with eating disorders: Implications for Psychiatrists

https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/understanding-nutritional-needs-patients-eating-disorders-implications-psychiatrists