Food Fixation

Weight loss is a boomng industry. We're all on a constant quest for a better body and gladly soak up the latest miracle method for lasting weight loss. New studies come out every day about what is and is not good for our bodies. But in our fight to be healthy, have we created a new eating disorder?

Orthorexia is the obsession with eating healthfully and correctly, taken to an extreme. Orthorexics may pride themselves on eating only organic or only vegetarian, or on their ability to stick to other obscure diets. They often have trouble going out to eat or even having a meal at a friend's house beause their food habits are more than just health-conscious; they're an obsession.

Orthorexia is different from anorexia and bulimia, since the focus is not on the quantity of food, but rather the quality of food. In fact, a person with orthorexia may eat regular meals and take in perfectly normal amount of calories. However, it joins there other, more well-known disorders in the fact that food becomes the absolute centre of a person's life. It's important to give yourself a reality check every so often when it comes to eating healthfully.

A well balanced diet is essential for everyone, and striving to eat well is an excellent way to jeeo your body at its peak at any age. But remember that even healthy eating can go to an unhealthy extreme - keep it healthy, but remember there's more to life than what goes on your plate.

eat well, live well

Eating Disorder: Anorexia Nervosa

An eating disorder is a compulsion to eat, or avoid eating, that negatively affects both one's physical and mental health. Eating disorders are all encompassing. They affect every part of the person's life.

Although it is somewhat strange to find that some people want to be dead-skinned body, while in other parts of the world people are dying to eat. This is still happening.

"Eating disorder" is when a person eats, or refuses to eat, in order to satisfy a psychic need and not a physical need. The person doesn't listen to bodily signals or perhaps is not even aware of them. A normal person eats when hungry and stops eating when the body doesn't need more, when he feels the signal of satisfaction.

Eating disorders are usually classified as anorexia nervosa , bulimia nervosa or binge eating disorder in accordance with the symptoms. However, a person may have an eating disorder without belonging exactly to any of these categories.

Those who lose weight because of illness, e.g., cancer, are not considered to have an eating disorder.

According to the authors of Surviving an Eating Disorder, "feelings about work, school, relationships, day-to-day activities and one's experience of emotional well being are determined by what has or has not been eaten or by a number on a scale." Anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are the most common eating disorders generally recognized by medical classification schemes, with a significant diagnostic overlap between the two

Anorexia Nervosa

Anorexia nervosa is an extremely dangerous, life-threatening eating disorder in which a person intentionally deprives themselves of food and can literally starve to death in an attempt to be what they consider "thin." The disorder involves extreme weight loss—at least 15 percent below the individual's "ideal" weight-and a refusal to maintain body weight that is even minimally normal for their age and height. Even if they become extremely emaciated, an anorexic person's distorted body image convinces them they are "fat." The self-esteem of individuals with this disorder is directly dependent on their body shape and weight. Weight loss for them is viewed as an impressive achievement and an indication of extraordinary self-discipline, whereas weight.

The key features of anorexia nervosa are:
Refusal to sustain a minimally normal body weight
Intense fear of gaining weight, despite being underweight
Distorted view of one’s body or weight, or denial of the dangers of one’s low weight

There are two types of anorexia. In the restricting type, weight loss is achieved by restricting calories. Restricting anorexics follow drastic diets, go on fasts, and exercise to excess. In the purging type, people get rid of calories they’ve consumed by vomiting or using laxatives and diuretics.

Anorexia is most common in adolescent girls and young women, with a typical age of onset between the ages of 13 and 20. But people of all ages—including men and children—can suffer from anorexia.

Whats more?

Signs and symptoms of anorexia

People with anorexia often hide their condition, so the warning signs are not always easy to spot. Furthermore, anorexics will typically try to explain away their disordered eating behaviors when confronted. But as anorexia progresses, the signs and symptoms become increasingly obvious and difficult to deny.

Eating and food behavior signs and symptoms

• Dieting despite being thin – Follows a severely restricted diet. Eats only certain low-calorie foods. Bans “bad” foods such as carbohydrates and fats.
  
• Obsession with calories, fat grams, and nutrition – Reads food labels, measures and weighs portions, keeps a food diary, reads diet books.
  
• Pretending to eat or lying about eating – Hides, plays with, or throws away food to avoid eating. Makes excuses to get out of meals (“I had a huge lunch” or “My stomach isn’t feeling good.”).
  
• Preoccupation with food – Eats very little, but constantly thinks about food. May cook for others, collect recipes, read food magazines, or make meal plans.
  
• Strange or secretive food rituals – Often refuses to eat around others or in public places. May eat in rigid, ritualistic ways (e.g. cutting food “just so”, chewing food and spitting it out, using a specific plate).
  

Appearance and body image signs and symptoms

• Dramatic weight loss – Rapid, drastic weight loss with no medical cause.
  
• Feeling fat, despite being underweight – May complain about being overweight in general or just “too fat” in certain places such as the stomach, hips, or thighs.
  
• Fixation on body image – Obsessed with weight, body shape, or clothing size. Frequent weigh-ins and concern over tiny fluctuations in weight.
  
• Harshly critical of appearance – Spends a lot of time in front of the mirror checking for flaws. There’s always something to criticize. They’re never thin enough.
  
• Denies being too thin – Refuses to believe that his or her low body weight is a problem, but may try to conceal it (drinking a lot of water before being weighed, wearing baggy or oversized clothes).
  

Purging signs and symptoms

• Using diet pills, laxatives, or diuretics – Abuses water pills, herbal appetite suppressants, prescription stimulants, ipecac syrup, and other drugs for weight loss.
  
• Throwing up after eating – Frequently disappears after meals or goes to the bathroom. May run the water to disguise sounds of vomiting or reappear smelling like mouthwash or mints.
  
• Compulsive exercising – Follows a punishing exercise regimen aimed at burning calories. Will exercise through injuries, illness, and bad weather. Works out extra hard after bingeing or eating something “bad.”
  

What Causes Anorexia Nervosa?

There is no single cause of anorexia nervosa. Several different factors are usually involved in producing this disorder.
Cultural pressures

Psychological issues

Family environment

Genetic factors

Life transitions

Perpetuating factors

among the causes perhaps psychological factor plays the more if not the most important aspect of Anorexia Nervosa as Psychological characteristics that can make a person more likely to develop anorexia nervosa include:

• Low self-esteem
  
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• Feelings of ineffectiveness
  
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• Poor body image
  
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• Depression
  
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• Difficulty expressing feelings
  
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• Rigid thinking patterns
  
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• Need for control
  
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• Perfectionism
  
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• Physical or sexual abuse
  
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• Avoidance of conflict with others
  
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• Need to feel special or unique
  

Signs and Symptoms (early)

• The first physical signs and effects of anorexia are:Loss of menstrual periods
  
• Lack of energy and weakness
  
• Feeling cold all the time
  
• Dry, yellowish skin Constipation and abdominal pain
  
• Restlessness and insomnia
  
• Dizziness, fainting, and headaches
  
• Growth of fine hair all over the body and face
  

Treatment

Among the treatment for Anorexia nervosa are:

• Psychotherapy
  
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• Support groups
  
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• Medication
  
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• Hospitalization
  
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Psychotherapy

Individual psychotherapy is the cornerstone of treatment for anorexia nervosa, especially for people who are beyond adolescence and who are not living at home. Individual therapy provides a safe place to learn how to identify concerns, solve problems, overcome fears, and test new skills.

There are many types of individual therapy. Cognitive behavioral approaches can help to develop healthy ways of thinking and patterns of behavior, particularly with food and relationships. Other kinds of therapy emphasize important interpersonal relationships and psychological issues, such as self-esteem.

Family therapy is almost always used as part of treatment when the person with anorexia nervosa is young or living at home. Family therapy can be useful to provide information about anorexia nervosa, assess the impact of the disorder on the family, help members overcome guilt, improve communication and decision-making skills, develop strategies for coping, and develop practical strategies for overcoming the disorder.


Marital therapy is almost always valuable when the person with anorexia nervosa is married. The primary goal of marital therapy is to strengthen the relationship. It can provide practical suggestions on how to deal with the disorder. It may also help identify and resolve communication problems.

Group therapy can play an important role as part of hospital treatment, partial hospitalization or intensive day treatment. There are many different types of groups, each with different goals and orientations. Some groups are "task-oriented" and may focus on food, eating, body image, interpersonal skills, and vocational training. Other groups are aimed at understanding the psychological factors that may have led to the development and maintenance of the disorder.

Groups can assist in dealing with other associated emotional symptoms, such as anxiety, depression and anger. Sharing experiences with others in a group can be very effective in helping reduce guilt, shame, and isolation, and can lead to important insights regarding strategies for recovery.

Perhaps the most well-known case of people who died of Anorexia Nervosa is Karen Carpenter's Case

"Before Karen Carpenter died, no one spoke of any of this. Girls starved themselves, but they didn't know that there were thousands of other girls that did the same things. They surely didn't know that their eating habits would kill them. No one was aware of anorexia and it's devastating consequences. Up until 1983, eating disorders were not taken seriously. They were treated like any other bad habits that no one ever mentioned. Many thought that there was a quick fix to the problem, and that the solution to an eating disorder was simply to start eating again. Girls believed that they were cured, when in fact, they weren't.

This problem would have continued unnoticed had it not been for the death of Karen Carpenter. Immediately following Karen's death, there was a massive surge in the media regarding the great singer and her battle against anorexia. Eating disorders all of a sudden became highly publicized. Magazines and journals began publishing articles, and the news had top stories about anorexia and it's devastating effects. All of the media coverage on Karen's death encouraged other celebrities to go public with their stories. The death raised the profile of eating disorders in the entertainment community. Jane Fonda and Cherry Boon O'Neill, daughter of singer Pat Boone, admitted to their eating disorders and committed themselves to getting help. Also coming forward with their problems were Kathy Rigby, gymnast and actress, and actresses Jeannine Turner and Lynn Redgrave.

Karen Carpenter's death gave people quite a scare. In the days and months to follow the tragic incident, there were a flurry of frightened phone calls to medical centers from people who had been jolted by the singer's death and wanted help. Psychologically-oriented groups had a doubling in attendance following Karen's death. In addition, many people began to launch voluntary support groups for victims of eating disorders."

Let us be more aware of the people around us, lend a helping hand and a caring deed, it may go a long way. The person next to you may just suffer Anorexia, they need you

D for Diabetes?

Over the last five years or so, researchers have established tentative links between Vitamin D deficiency and metabolic syndrome (aka syndrome X), a condition characterised by abdominal obesity, high blood pressure and high levels of either blood sugar or insulin.

People with metabolic syndrome have an elevated risk for type-2 diabetes and/or cardiovascular disease, as well as other health problems. Now a study from Spain provides new evidence that the two are closely linked. It looked at a group of morbidly-obese individuals and found that 63 percent of them had metabolic syndrome.

A little more than half of the group also had too little vitamin D in their bodies. More significantly, however, roughly 61 percent of those with metabolic syndrome were vitamin D deficient, leading the researchers to say they were closely linked - at least in morbidly-obese individuals. The Spanish study was strictly observational, so it makes no claims about the value of vitamin D supplementation. It does, However add yet another reason to make sure you either get enough sun time or take a daily dose of Vitamin D3.