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Food for thought

February 16, 2011

By Staff Reporter

A recent study of 700 girls in a secondary school in Dublin found that 51 percent of them skipped meals to avoid weight gain. Eating disorders develop from a variety of emotional, social, physical and familial issues. It begins as a diet and progresses until the sufferer’s eating patterns becomes disturbed and more extreme. U.S. studies show that 35 percent of “normal dieters” progress to pathological dieting. Many young people begin dieting in an attempt to change their body shape. Eating disorders most commonly occur among adolescents and people in their 20s.
People who develop eating disorders suffer from low self-esteem, experts say. They may feel unloved or unattractive and they believe that being thin is the solution to their problems. An eating disorder may be used as a coping mechanism during a stressful or traumatic time in their lives. They feel that if they can control their weight, then they have control at least over one aspect of their lives.
There is no one cause for eating disorders, though much of the blame seems to fall on society’s admiration and glorification of those in the entertainment industry. Adolescents get the message they must conform to society’s standard of perfection to be loved and accepted. By trying to be thin they are striving to reach the perfect body weight no matter how unrealistic it is. Most fashion models are thinner than 98 percent of American women.
In one well-publicized case, the 2002 Rose of Tralee, Tara Gervasoni, temporarily suspended her duties associated with the pageant to deal with the eating disorder bulimia.
Joe Kelly, president of the non-profit Dads and Daughters, which promotes improving father-daughter relationships through a mixture of activism and education, also serves on the board of the Eating Disorder Coalition for Policy, Research and Action. The group works to educate parents in noticing and overcoming eating disorders and promoting healthy a body image in their children.
“We raise fathers’ awareness of how important they are in influencing their daughters’ body image,” he said.
In 2001, Kelly was named iParenting.com’s Dad of the Year. “Unfortunately this is still a sexist culture,” Kelly said. “As a father of two women, that makes me sick to the stomach.”
Currently Dads and Daughters is challenging Abercrombie and Fitch to change the advertising images that portray young skinny girls, Kelly said, “with nothing but sexualized, often pornographic, images and messages.” Dads and Daughters believes these types of ads promote and unhealthy and unrealistic image to impressionable adolescents.
An estimated 10,000 Irish people suffer from eating disorders. There are are as many as 10 million American sufferers, and 70 million worldwide. Though eating disorders were thought to be much more common in females, a study conducted by Cornell University found that 40 percent of the male football players had disturbed eating patterns. Men make up as much as 40 percent of those suffering from binge-eating disorders. Besides the usual desire of sufferers just to be lean, eating disorders in males may develop because of the necessity of weight restriction in certain sports or because the sufferer is struggling with gender or sexuality orientation issues.
The main eating disorders are anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge-eating disorder. A person suffering from anorexia nervosa limits her intake of food to attain a below-average body weight. By starving themselves, they hope to lose weight rapidly. Strict dieting leads to deficiency of essential nutrients like iron and calcium. Females who are below normal body weight may stop menstruating. Extreme dieting can have long-term affects like osteoporosis and anemia.
Bulimia nervosa involves repeatedly eating excessive amounts of food and then trying to compensate with dangerous behavior like self-induced vomiting, excessive exercising or using laxatives. Again the sufferer is not receiving the essential nutrients for the body to function properly. Repeated vomiting can have long-term affects on the digestive system, the heart, kidneys and teeth.
Someone experiencing binge-eating disorder repeatedly binges without purging afterward. Therefore, over time she are likely to put on weight. In this case the sufferer may be using food as a comfort mechanism and will eat until she can eat no more. Immediately, she will feel weighted by guilt. She then puts on weight and becomes more depressed.
The longer an eating disorder is established, the harder it is to stop its progress. Margaret, a past sufferer who asked that her last name not be used, once worried constantly about the number of calories even in something as small as a section of orange.
“Anything that could contain calories was a threat,” she said. “Before I ate I planned what I would allow myself to eat and the calories in it. For a while I was even suspicious of water.”
The condition frequently takes on a life of its own and it becomes hard for the sufferer to separate from it because it has become a huge part of his or her life. It has become a crutch. As is the case with many other addictions, recovery cannot be forced; the victim must be want to get better.
Eating disorders can be life threatening, so medical intervention may be required. The sufferer’s weight may need to be stabilized to a safe level before psychological treatment can begin. A dietician works with the victim to try to come up with an eating plan that they both agree on. It’s important that the victim is consulted, otherwise he may feel threatened and rebel. The sufferer may also be given nutritional and vitamin supplements to try to build up his system again. Psychological treatment explores the underlying reasons that led to the eating disorder and tries to provide alternate coping mechanisms when trauma, anxiety or stressful situations arises. One-to-one counseling and group therapy aims to promote a healthier and realistic self-image so the sufferer may realize their self worth and not place all the emphasis on their body weight. Recovery takes time, patience and support from doctors, families and friends.
Margaret is grateful she received treatment when she did.
“I feel normal again,” she said. “Now I don’t watch everything I eat and my weight has stabilized. I eat any kind of food I want and exercise regularly. I’m very happy to be free of that awful existence.”
Whatever the cause of eating disorders, it remains a huge and ever-increasing problem. People are putting their lives in grave danger and isolating themselves from family and friends in order to achieve an unhealthy body weight. Eating disorders can go unnoticed and the condition will progress and become harder to treat. Anorexia nervosa is the No. 1 cause of death among young women, so detection and treatment are paramount.

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