Eating Disorders News and Views: August 8 2012

Warning: Articles may be triggering.
articles do not necessarily reflect the views of this blog

FAMILY HEALTH MATTERS: Eating disorders a concern for not only teenage girls

Eating disorders describe several serious conditions that affect 24 million Americans each year, according to the Renfrew Center Foundation for Eating Disorders. And, it’s not always those you would expect.

Boys, adult women and men are not immune from developing this life-threatening condition, either. In fact, according to the National Association for Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, 10 to 15 percent of individuals suffering from anorexia are male.

Eating disorders fall under several categories, the most widely publicized, and dangerous of which are anorexia (severe food restriction) and bulimia (consuming and vomiting large amounts of food). Binge eating (excessive eating without vomiting) and excessive exercise are also considered eating disorders.
Read Family Health Matters in full


Anorexia’s scary online empire
Nothing tastes as good as blogging feels

Once upon a time, anorexia was a relatively private matter. The person suffering from it usually denied their affliction to avoid treatment. Most often, it would remain a secret once diagnosed, in part to avoid becoming the subject of local gossip. And once detected, the person in question would undergo treatment and find herself sequestered away from the outside world in a hospital that wouldn’t even allow Barbie or Disney princess paraphernalia to infiltrate its walls, lest it trigger her urge to starve. Hopefully, she would recover. She would go on with her life, and her friends and family would encourage her to eat, maybe relax a little. Her once-secret eating disorder would become something that she had overcome. It was possible that she would even write a memoir about it one day; Wasted; Solitaire; Feeling for the Bones; Thin; I could name at least a dozen that aren’t about eating disorders, but simply memoirs of a troubled life involving starving yourself at one point in a longer line of suffering.
Read Online Empire in full


Young with eating disorders 'missing out on vital help'

Eating disorders in children are not being taken seriously enough, depriving them of vital treatment, a leading expert has told BBC Newsnight.

Professor Bryan Lask said he is seeing ever younger patients, with increasing numbers becoming ill under age 10.

His pioneering research suggests a strong genetic predisposition to anorexia, which experts say needs to be tackled through early intervention.

New figures reveal eating disorders cost the NHS £1.26bn a year in England.
Read Young with EDs in full


Young, beautiful, anorexic and dead

AT 19, with several teen magazine cover shoots behind her and the prospect of a lucrative modelling career, Bethaney Wallace faced a crippling struggle with eating disorders which finally claimed her life this year.

Doctors believe that over the three years since she developed anorexia and bulimia, her condition had weakened her heart and it stopped beating as she slept.

Her father said: "She lost her self-esteem. She would say she was fat but she was so beautiful -- she didn't realise how beautiful she was.

"She had up days and down days. It was like Jekyll and Hyde.

"I tried to warn her that her organs would fail but she just said: 'Don't be silly'. If you mentioned food it would start an argument."
Read YBA&D in full


Eating disorders exact a toll on older women, too

Molly Woolsey was 19 when her anorexia was diagnosed. Once she passed her 20s, the St. Paul woman said, passers-by assumed she had cancer or another terminal illness because she was so thin.

“It doesn’t occur to them that someone my age could have an eating disorder,” said Woolsey, now 45.
Advertisement

Anorexia, binge eating and bulimia are considered afflictions of teenage girls or women in their 20s. But increasingly, older women are admitting to eating disorder symptoms, which put them at higher risk for a wide range of health problems.
Read Toll on Older Women in full


The pressure to be everything

In the recent Wenatchee World article about eating disorders, nutritionist Laurie Kutrich noted that she has seen an increase in patients with anorexia and bulimia. In October 2010, The Guardian reported a significant increase in prevalence of eating disorders seen in women ages 30 and above. I believe we need to look beyond conventional explanations for the rise in eating disorders and consider ways that the economic downturn may be increasing these illnesses in our society and community. The slow economy creates pressure on women to become an “equal or greater” breadwinner in the family unit (in addition to fulfilling all the other more traditional female roles).
Read Everything in full.


Great Majority of Women with Eating Disorders are Vegetarians

A new study published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics has determined that women diagnosed with an eating disorder are four times more likely to be vegetarian compared to women with no eating disorders.

In addition to this, women with a diagnosed eating disorder were twice as likely to have been vegetarian at some point in their lives, compared to women without eating disorders.
Read Great Majority in full.


Eating Disorders Tied to Drug Use, Drinking

Adolescent girls with a variety of eating disorders -- even conditions less severe than anorexia or bulimia -- are at risk for obesity and alcohol and drug use, a prospective study found.

Among those who reported binge eating but not purging, the risk for becoming overweight or obese was doubled (OR 1.90, 95% CI 1.04 to 3.48) compared with healthy peers, according to Alison E. Field, ScD, of Harvard University in Boston, and colleagues.
Read Tied To in full



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Eating Disorders Seen Around The Web: August 2, 2011

Profile: Sam Thomas-Men Get Eating Disorders Too
The Mirror

Sam Thomas, founder and project leader at Men Get Eating Disorders Too, entered the TalkTalk Digital Heroes Award in 2010 with the aim of making more people area of the issue of eating disorders amongst men and be a port of call for those affected or worried by it. And like many of the best projects, it was one that was born from personal experience.

Sam got the idea for Men Get Eating Disorders Too from his own experience with bulimia, which he experienced during his time school: “I used to get bullied quite badly, and used to run out of lessons and hide in the boys’ toilets. I’d often binge and purge, but didn’t think too much of it; of course, as a thirteen-year-old you don’t think about eating disorders and you certainly haven’t heard of bulimia.
“When I did start looking for help, I struggled because I was male. Only once I had recovered did I think to myself ‘hang on a minute, if I was a female....
Read Men Get Eating Disorders Too in full


Sexualization of Young Children Linked to Eating Disorder Development
AOL Healthy Living

As early exposure to themes of sex becomes the norm, children of younger ages are expressing discontent with their physical appearance. Results from a recent survey suggest that children rank body image among the highest of their concerns, above both self-confidence and social life. Recent research also suggests that nearly 50 percent of females between ages 11 and 16 would consider cosmetic surgery to improve their appearance.

These findings have striking implications about the factors comprising young children's self-image and esteem. Eating disorders are now presenting in children as young as 6 years old, with dieting becoming more common among those under the age of 10.

Such ardent focus on physical appearance also comes in response to overly-sexualized messages from the media.
Read Sexualization of Young Children Linked To EDs in full


Mental Health: Eating Disorders
BBC News

Every year about 20 people in Britain die from anorexia - the eating disorder which compels them to deprive their bodies of food.

It is thought that about 165,000 Britons have some sort of eating disorder.
Most sufferers are female, although the latest evidence suggests about one in ten is now a male.
One person who developed anorexia at the relatively late age of 27 is Victoria Buchan, who lives near Grampound Road in mid Cornwall.

She admitted for a while she did her best to hide the anorexia from her doctor.
"There was always a response, always something I could hide behind," she said.
"Because of wearing baggy clothes they might not have seen I was losing weight."
Read Mental Health: Eating Disorders in full



Quick Hit: The Fat Femme’s Guide to Lovin’Summer
Happy Bodies

Aimee Fleck, a fantastic student at the Maryland Institute College of Art, made a little zine called The Fat Femme’s Guide to Loving Summer.  Inside there are interviews with some really foxy ladies, instructions on how to make friendship bracelets, a recipe for beignets, new hairstyles to try, a playlist, and lots of suggestions for great summer fashion. It’s all beautifully, colorfully drawn and very well designed, plus sassy and fun.  The zine is also getting plenty of tumblr love, which makes me really happy.
Read The Fat Femme's Guide in full


10 Questions To Ask Yourself About Anger
Hope Forward

By no means am I suggesting that the answers to the following questions are easy, readily available to you, or in any way obvious, though some may be. I think, rather, that they may serve as guide posts toward progress, relief, and insight. While anger is not always the culprit, it does often lurk underneath depression, anxiety, restlessness, discontent, or irritability. While certain angers are clear and apparent, others are more subtle. I think it pays to pay attention to them. Having anger does not mean that you are an angry person, that you have a temper; it just means that you have real feelings, some old, some new, and that tending to them may improve your life in many ways. How we feel anger, what we do with it, is usually based on a mix of genetic, hormonal, biochemical and socialcultural factors. Given that, we can ask ourselves the following questions in our quest to feel better.

1) How was anger expressed or suppressed in my family?

2) What are my earliest memories of feeling angry? With whom? For what? What other feelings do these memories bring up?
Read 10 Questions in full


Genetics Complicate Recovery From Eating Disorders
Psych Central

Sadly, people with eating disorders often face a long-term battle. Those with anorexia nervosa, for instance, are often severely underweight and have a high likelihood of dying from malnutrition.

Now, a new study sheds light on why some people have poor outcomes.

An international team of scientists has identified possible genetic variations that could influence a patient’s recovery from an eating disorder such as anorexia or bulimia. Researchers believe their findings may augment development of effective interventions for the most treatment-resistant patients with these disorders.
Read Genetics Complicate Recovery in full

In The News: Eating Disorders April 2011

 

Award-winning video was a result of teen's battle with anorexia

The black-and-white video scenes fade in and out slowly, teen girls at school and home, the words reflecting their thoughts: "Would they like me if I was thinner?" "Why can't I stop?" "Can this really kill me?"
Savannah Dickson knows those thoughts all too well.
Two years ago, when she weighed 82 pounds and was suffering from anorexia, doctors gave the Lexington teen three weeks to live.
After two months of in- patient treatment and continuing long-term counseling, the Tates Creek senior is healthy and hoping her award-winning video will help others find their way to recovery.

Read in full: Award Winning Video

An 18in waist and size three feet: Former anorexic's life-sized Barbie reveals bizarre - and dangerous - proportions of famous doll

She's been a favourite with young girls for decades. But a life-sized Barbie is being used to demonstrate just how unhealthy the doll's proportions would be on a real woman.
The mannequin, which stands 5ft 9in tall, has a 39in bust, a tiny 18in waist and 33in hips. Even her feet would be disproportionate, at a tiny U.S. size 3.
Galia Slayen, who made the model, revealed that a real woman with the same dimensions would weigh just 110lb, giving her a BMI of 16.24 - a figure associated with eating disorders.

Read in full: Former Anorexic's Life-Sized Barbie

Demi Lovato Blames Bullies For Eating Disorder

Demi Lovato is convinced childhood bullying is to blame for her battle with an eating disorder, because she endured years of taunts about her weight.

The 18-year-old singer/actress was admitted to rehab last year to deal with a number of issues, including anorexia and bulimia, self-harming and bipolar disorder. 

Lovato has been candid about the emotional and physical stresses she has faced and she has now revealed her problems began when she was targeted by bullies as a child.  

Read in full: Demi Lovato

Mystery around South Korean model Kim Yuri's death

On 19th April 2011, the media reported that supermodel Kim Yuri committed suicide by ingesting poison. Recent autopsy reports, however, have proved that it was neither a suicide or a homicide.

On April 20th, the Kangnam Police reported, “There were no signs of damage or wounds internally and externally, nor were there signs of poisoning. The media reports of her death being a suicide are completely false.” 

Read in full: Mystery Kim Yuri death

 Claims plus-sized models 'encourage obesity'

First models were criticized for being too thin, now it seems they're too fat.


An Italian researcher says the fashion industry shouldn't promote plus size models because it will encourage women to gain weight.

Luca Savorelli claims thin models are good because they encourage women to be thinner and allowing plus size models to become the norm could encourage obesity.

"Obesity and being overweight is the problem of western society," Mr Savorelli says. "So what's going to happen here if we don't balance well?"

 

Read in full: Claims

Eating Disorders In The News: November 2010

Unplanned Pregnancies More Common In Women With Anorexia Nervosa

Times of India 

Women with anorexia nervosa are much more likely to have both unplanned pregnancies and induced abortions than women who don't have the serious eating disorder, according to a new study.

The study has been conducted by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Norwegian researchers.

Lead author Cynthia M. Bulik said that these results may be driven by a mistaken belief among women with anorexia that they can't get pregnant because they are either not having menstrual periods at all or are having irregular periods.

"Anorexia is not a good contraceptive. Just because you're not menstruating, or because you're menstruating irregularly, doesn't mean you're not at risk for becoming pregnant," said Bulik.

"Physicians and other health care providers need to be aware of this as well. Doctors who treat women and adolescent girls, in particular, "need to make sure that they have the conversation about sexuality and contraception as clearly with patients with anorexia as they do with all other girls and women," she added.
Read in full: More Common In Women With Anorexia Nervosa

Eating Ourselves Sick 

HeraldSun.com 

DANGEROUS eating habits are becoming so normal they affect nearly one in two women, new research reveals. A Victoria University study has found almost half of the participants had experienced at least one episode of vomiting, laxative or diuretic abuse or uncontrolled binge eating to control their weight in the previous six months.

It also found more than 90 per cent of the 209 women were dissatisfied with their bodies, causing extreme dieting among older women as well as younger ones.
Researcher Lyndsey Nolan, a psychology lecturer at Victoria University, said the findings were alarming.

"Women have begun to resort to destructive means to achieve weight loss," Dr Nolan says.
Read in full: Eating Ourselves Sick 


Kirstie’s Beating Teenage Anorexia
Walesonline

KIRSTIE McLEAN knows only too well the hell caused by anorexia.
The 17-year-old’s weight plummeted to just over five stone last year, and she has been battling the condition ever since.

This year she fought back from the illness to be a finalist in the Miss Cardiff beauty pageant. Kirstie, a student from Rumney, Cardiff, said more needed to be done to spot the condition earlier.
“When I went to the doctor’s I wasn’t half as bad as I got,” she said.

“They should be taught how to recognise it and visit their patients regularly to stop it before it gets out of control.”

Kirstie said airbrushed models and film stars in magazines portrayed an unrealistic image of health and beauty.

“They are causing people to put themselves in danger by trying to do the impossible,” she said.
Read in full: Kirstie's Beating Teenage Anorexia

Children As Young As 8 Treated For Eating Disorders 

Walesonline 

Doctors must be better trained to spot life-threatening eating disorders in young children.
That is the demand from health professionals today as doctors admit to a “lack of awareness” in dealing with eating disorders in young children, who they sometimes simply diagnose as fussy eaters.

The call comes as figures reveal children as young as eight are being admitted to Welsh hospitals
suffering from eating disorders.

The alarming data uncovered by Wales On Sunday shows youngsters are developing life-threatening conditions like anorexia having barely reached primary school.

Our research reveals the shocking age of the youngest patient in the country, but also shows children aged nine, 10, and 11 have been hospitalised.

But experts warn the figures reveal “the tip of the iceberg” and the problem is increasing.
Read in full: Children As Young As 8

300 Calories a DAY: Portia de Rossi Cries to Oprah as She Reveals Shocking Details of Her Anorexia
Dailymail

Portia de Rossi has sat down for a tearful interview with Oprah in which she discusses the depths of her anorexia and how she was almost 'proud' of dropping to under six stone, weighing in at just 82 lbs.
De Rossi, who has changed her name to Portia Degeneres since marrying partner Ellen Degeneres, choked up while promoting her memoir 'Unbearable Lightness: A Story of Loss and Gain.'

'It wasn't that I was proud of it,' she tells Oprah in the interview airing in the U.S. on Monday. 'But it was certainly a recognition for my self control.'
Read in full: Portia de Rossi

How Ricci Beat Anorexia
Toronto Sun

The threat of a hospital stay prompted actress Christina Ricci to fight her anorexia issues as a teen.
The star was just 16 when doctors and her parents urged her to consider a drastic cure for her eating disorder - but Ricci wasn't happy about the idea of being strapped to a bed for weeks.
She tells Black Book magazine, "They were going to hospitalize me, and I was worried about people force-feeding me through a tube. I didn't want that, so I fought the disease."
Ricci won her battle and now insists she'll never go back to starving herself to stay thin: "I still think about it, but I could never do it again. I remember the overwhelming feeling of hopelessness when I was in the middle of it. My brain had basically become my biggest tormentor. I'd become afraid of myself."
Read in full: Ricci

'I Heart Anorexia' T-Shirts -- Is Artist Alexsandro Palombo's Work Chic or Cruel?

NY Daily News

Is it weighty commentary or making light of a serious issue?

"I heart Anorexia" artist Alexsandro Palombo is drawing some heavy criticism online for his drawings of celebrities, depicted as skeletons.

Palombo's drawings of famously thin celebrity Victoria Beckham, with her head perched upon a pile of leopard-print bones, as well as designer Rachel Zoe, also drawn as a skeleton, perched on a toilet have some critics crying foul. 

"Want to become a perfect Skeleton fashion victim but you don't know how?," he wrote on his blog Humor Chic.  "Every day just eat a nice apple for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Make sure it's always a glamorous red one, it gives the idea of substance. Don't drink water, an apple contains enough liquid. Replace it with champagne and lots of coke."

Palombo is clearly poking fun at the whole idea of idealized perfection, but not everyone is laughing.
Read in full: I Heart Anorexia

sources sited above

Eating Disorders Bloggers: What Some Are Discussing This Month

Natasha's Story: "I Was Raised Thinking I Had No Worth, No Place In This World."
Medusa

Hi Medusa,
My name is Natasha and I am 18 years old. When I think about my life, I'm never really sure when exactly I started hating myself. I had suicidal thoughts when I was around 9 years old. I was raised thinking I had no worth, no place in this world. My stepmother starved me, beat me, and ridiculed me daily.
Read in full: Natasha's Story



Being Rational
ED Bites

Although I've never experienced a full-blown psychotic episode, I found myself nodding my head in agreement with this neuroscientist's description of her own psychosis.

"Erin, you are a scientist," they'd begin. "You are intelligent, rational. Tell me, then, how can you believe that there are rats inside your brain? They're just plain too big. Besides, how could they get in?"

They were right. About my being smart, I mean; I was, after all, a graduate student in the neuroscience program at the University of British Columbia. But how could they relate that rationality to the logic of the Deep Meaning? For it was due to the Deep Meaning that the rats had infiltrated my system and were inhabiting my brain. They gnawed relentlessly on my neurons, causing massive degeneration. This was particularly upsetting to me, as I depended on a sharp mind for my work in neuroscience.

The rats spent significant periods of time consuming brain matter in the occipital lobe of my brain. I knew, from my studies, that this was the primary visual cortex. And yet, I experienced no visual deficits. Obviously, I realized, I had a very unique brain: I was able to regenerate large sections of my central nervous system—and to do so extremely quickly. I relaxed a bit, but not entirely. Surely no good could come of having rats feed on my brain cells. So I sought means of ridding my body of them. I bled them out through self-cutting and banging my head until the skin broke, bloody. Continually, I kept my brain active, electrocuting the rats that happened to be feasting on the activated neurons.   
Read in full: Being Rational



Don't You Realize That Fat Is Unhealthy?
Shapely Prose

Here’s the thing: I blog about fat acceptance.
Fat acceptance, as you can probably guess from the words “fat” and “acceptance” being right together like that, does not go over so well in some circles. Even in some progressive circles — which are usually known for not hating entire groups of people because of their appearances, not thinking what other people do with their bodies is anybody’s beeswax, and not uncritically accepting whatever moral panic the media tries to whip up, but wev. Fat is different! Don’t you know there’s an obesity epidemic? Don’t you know that fat kills? Haven’t you ever heard of Type 2 diabetes? Don’t you realize how much money this is going to cost society down the line? Won’t someone please think of the children?

So, before I start getting comments like that, I want to lay out ten principles that underlie pretty much everything I write about fat and health.

1. Weight itself is not a health problem, except in the most extreme cases (i.e., being underweight or so fat you’re immobilized). In fact, fat people live longer than thin people and are more likely to survive cardiac events, and some studies have shown that fat can protect against “infections, cancer, lung disease, heart disease, osteoporosis, anemia, high blood pressure, rheumatoid arthritis and type 2 diabetes.” Yeah, you read that right: even the goddamned diabetes. Now, I’m not saying we should all go out and get fat for our health (which we wouldn’t be able to do anyway, because no one knows how to make a naturally thin person fat any more than they know how to make a naturally fat person thin; see point 4), but I’m definitely saying obesity research is turning up surprising information all the time — much of which goes ignored by the media — and people who give a damn about critical thinking would be foolish to accept the party line on fat. Just because you’ve heard over and over and over that fat! kills! doesn’t mean it’s true. It just means that people in this culture really love saying it.
Read in full: Don't You Realize...



Eating Disorder Recovery: From Inpatient Treatment To Life
Margarita Tartakovsky

I’m thrilled to publish today’s guest post by Elizabeth Short. Just recently Elizabeth shared her story of recovery and resiliency here at Weightless (part 1 and part 2). Currently, she’s a Masters student in Counseling at The University of New Orleans, and writes the blog Fiding Hope.. Elizabeth is also in the process of  writing a memoir about her recovery. I love that Elizabeth is reaching out to others with her positive and hopeful message, and I love her guest post. It’s raw, insightful, brave and beautifully written. Plus, it offers really valuable advice. And I can’t say enough great things about it. I’m so grateful to her for sharing this with us.

Inpatient treatment for eating disorders:  Locked bathrooms.  Staff watching your every move, including time in the bathroom.  Meals and snacks are closely monitored.  No shoelaces, tweezers, coffee, gum or mouthwash.  6 a.m. weigh-ins.  Room searches.  Individual and/or group therapy all day long.

Sounds a little like prison to some, but for me, it was safety.  It meant I couldn’t restrict my intake or purge after eating.   I couldn’t use laxatives or diet pills.  I couldn’t weigh myself 50 times a day. I couldn’t stay isolated in my house for days at a time.
Read in full: From Inpatient Treatment To Life



Watch It
Happy Bodies

The other night, when refusing a second helping at a dinner party, a guy said: “None for me, I’m watching my figure.”

We all laughed.

What a silly thought, a guy, who’s young and looks fit, dieting? Ridiculous. And yet this is just expected for so many people. So often people who are read as fat (and therefore automatically unhealthy) are subjected to judgements and unwanted advice: if you only ate a little less, worked out a little more, watched your figure, you could look young and fit too!

This comment struck me particularly because I’m reading two book right now (by white men) where major female characters are made into joke figures because of their weight. While the eating habits and fitness of other characters are not chronicled, paragraphs are dedicated to Lizzyboo stopping for ice cream before dinner and every time Vera moves across a scene her jiggles or heavy breathing are remarked upon. The joke is not just fat = funny (which it isn’t) but also how stupid these women are! If she didn’t have those extra snacks she wouldn’t be such a fattie! Silly Vera, always going on binges after diets and gaining the weight back. They make it character flaw that they are fat. A flaw that they don’t know how to properly watch their figures.

A study came out recently that reported that when Forty dietetics and health promotion students enrolled in a university obesity course followed a a calorie restricted diet (1,200 calories for women and 1,500 calories for men) for just one week their was a significant change in their fat-phobias. It makes sense that once these future dietitians and health professionals realized how high the expectations were of their fat patients they would become more sympathetic. It so easy to look at someone else and think you know what is best for them, but in actuality, individuals are in the best position to make choices about their lives and bodies. Even doctors trained to take care of our health can be subject to fat-phobia, and take it out on their patients.
Read in full: Watch It 


 Reboot
Defining Wellness 

I’m proud to say I’m an optimist. Even when I’m feeling stressed, anxious or upset, and even when I’ve felt so low that I couldn’t summon the strength to get out of bed, there’s always been that voice inside of me that says, “It WILL get better. There IS hope.”
And I don’t just feel that hope for myself. I feel that hope for anyone who needs it. I believe that we all have the power to be thankful for what we have even in the midst of sadness, to take the necessary steps to make life better.
But even with this optimistic attitude, there are times when I get in a funk. I wake up and feel anxious and think, “Huh, where’d that come from?” Or I get in some kind of existential rut and I obsess about my place in the world. Or eating disorder symptoms re-emerge and I think, “You again? I thought I folded you up, packed you in a box, and buried you in a bottomless pit.”
It’s at times like these that I use that optimistic energy within me to reboot.
In a recent post, I discussed my desire to plan less . . . do more . . . NOW.
When I get in a funk, that’s half of the solution. Stop thinking about everything that’s going wrong and start living.
Read in full: Reboot



sources linked above

Eating Disorders In The News: April 03, 2010

Binge Eating Disorder: The Emotional Roots of a Physical Condition
Huffington Post: Sunny Gold

Something happened this morning in a nondescript "multipurpose room" on the campus of Pace University that could end up saving (literally) tens of thousands of lives. The Stop Obesity Alliance, the National Eating Disorders Association and key members of the mass media--three groups which, throughout the years have often been at loggerheads--got together for a long overdue talk. The subject? How the three groups can come together for the greatest good and talk about weight and health in a new, better way. I was there, in part, because I'm kind of a walking, breathing chimera of all three groups. I am recovered from binge eating disorder (BED) and obesity (I weighed 225 pounds during college, when my bingeing was at its worst), and I'm also a long-time health editor at Glamour magazine.

I've covered the health risks of obesity, smart nutrition and healthy weight loss--among many other women's health topics--for years. And, perhaps because of my personal history of BED, have often wondered why (oh God, why?) more obesity research and discussion of the obesity epidemic didn't focus on "disordered" eating. Of course obesity isn't an eating disorder, but it's undeniable that many people who are obese have one! Research has found that 10 to 15 percent of mildly obese individuals have BED, and it's been reported that many, many more engage in binge eating episodes. And we know from other research that binge eating creates real physiological changes in the brain that reinforce more binge eating, and therefore more depression, weight gain, obsession, dieting and ultimately, bingeing again. Except for patients lucky enough to be seen by top respected obesity treatment institutions, most obese people are treated for the physical symptoms and tangible causes of their ills--but not the emotional and mental roots.
Binge Eating Disorder: The Emotional Roots of a Physical Condition in full.



Rats Fed On Bacon, Cheesecake, and Ding-Dongs Become Addicted to Junk Food
Discover Magazine

Do you often feel the need for a sweet sugar rush or a moment of bacon-induced bliss? A new study offers evidence that that surge of pleasure is similar to a heroin high, and that eating junk food regularly can significantly change the brain’s chemical make-up, creating junk food addicts who are driven to overeat.

Lead researcher Paul Kenny says it had previously been unclear whether extreme overeating was initiated by a chemical irregularity in the brain or if the behavior itself was changing the brain’s biochemical makeup. The new research by Kenny and his colleague Paul Johnson, a graduate student, shows that both conditions are possible [Scientific American].
Rats Fed On Bacon, Cheesecake, and Ding-Dongs Become Addicted to Junk Food in full



Book and Talking Therapy Helped Binge Eaters Cut Down, US Study
Medical News Today

New research from the US found that reading a self-help book and 12 weeks of talking therapy helped binge eaters cut down for up to a year, and saved them money.

Two studies on the research, by investigators from the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research, Wesleyan University and Rutgers University, are due to be published in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.

Affecting around 9 million Americans, or more than 3 per cent of the population, binge eating is the most common eating disorder in the US, yet there aren't many ways to treat it.

The condition has received a lot press recently because the American Psychiatric Association has recommended it be regarded as a separate, distinct eating disorder like bulimia and anorexia. This distinction could focus more attention on bingeing and how it should be treated, as well as affect the numbers diagnosed and how insurers will cover treatment, noted the authors.
Book and Talking Therapy Helped Binge Eaters Cut Down, US Study in full.


Emily's Mother Told Her She Wasn't Welcome at Home While She Was Anorexic-So Did Tough Love Work?
DailyMail

After ten years of watching her beautiful and academically gifted daughter wasting away before her eyes, Sue Blackmore snapped.

Weighing less than six stone, Oxford graduate Emily Troscianko was little more than skin and bone, but she seemed determined to starve herself to death.

Overwhelmed by sadness, helplessness and anger, Sue suddenly realised she could no longer tolerate this 'ghost' sucking the life out of the family.

'Your anorexia is not welcome at our new house,' she told Emily on the phone, as they talked about the planned family move from Bristol to Devon.

Emily's Mother Told Her She Wasn't Welcome at Home While She Was Anorexic-So Did Tough Love Work? in full.

How Bristol Uni Thinks Plate Will Help Eating Disorders BBC

As Bristol University applies for funding to use a computerised plate which weighs food, Matthew Hill travels to Sweden to find out how effective it can be.

It's spaghetti carbonara and fresh salad on the menu at this specialist clinic for patients with eating disorders at Stockholm's prestigious Karolinska Institute.

Marisa Berzens is one of some 30 young women and teenagers tucking into their plate of food, perched on a pre-programmed device called a Mandometer, which tells them if they are eating enough and at the right speed.

Only weeks ago many of the patients were only able to consume, and keep down, a dangerously small amount of food.

Marisa, 23, flew all the way from Australia for her treatment. When she arrived for the seven-week course she weighed just over six stone (35kg) but she is already a much healthier weight.

Throughout her teenage years the former opera singer struggled with bulimia nervosa.

How Bristol Uni Thinks Plate Will Help Eating Disorders in full

Eating Disorders News: March 2010

Exploring Diabetes' Link To Eating Disorders
Medical News Today

Diabetics, under the gun to better manage their disease by controlling their food intake and weight, may find themselves in the sticky wicket of needing treatment that makes them hungry, researchers said.

Attempts to maintain healthy blood sugar levels and prevent weight gain may suggest an eating disorder when the disease and its treatment are to blame, said Dr. Deborah Young-Hyman, pediatric psychologist at the Medical College of Georgia's Georgia Prevention Institute.

"You can't use the same criteria to diagnose eating disorders that you use in non-diabetic populations because what we actually prescribe as part of diabetes treatment is part of disordered eating behavior. Food preoccupation is one example," she said.

Preoccupation with food, in fact, is required for optimal disease management. Questions like "What are you putting in your mouth? Did you know that was going to raise your blood sugar?" are a part of life, Dr. Young-Hyman said. Young women, and increasingly young men, also are not immune from societal pressures to be thin, she noted.

continued: Exploring Diabetes' Link To Eating Disorders



March Is Nutrition Month
News-Tribune

National Nutrition Month is a campaign that focuses on the importance of helping children and teens make healthy food choices and develop sound eating and physical activity habits. Estimates of the number of overweight children range from a low of 13% to a high of 30%, having doubled since the early 1970s. This means that approximately 6 million children could be at-risk for current and future self-esteem and health problems. On the other side of the weight issue, an estimated 7 million girls and 1 million boys have an eating disorder. The age of onset of these potentially life threatening disorders is getting lower, with children as young as seven being diagnosed.

Weight is determined by a variety of factors: genetics, environment, activity, and emotions. With respect to the psychology of eating problems, some of the same feelings can both result from and lead tounhealthy eating behaviors. For example, it is unclear if such feelings as loneliness, sadness, anger, anxiety, lack of control, worthlessness, low self-esteem, or disordered body image are the cause or the effect of eating problems.

When dealing with children and weight issues, avoid calling attention to the child’s weight. Nagging is unsuccessful when you’re trying to change behavior. To a child, pressure to lose weight can feel like a crushing criticism and ultimately backfire. Praising and encouraging children in other areas will go farther with respect to improving their self-esteem.

continued: March Is Nutrition Month



Eating Disorders Can Affect Anyone
The Southern

Diets and weight loss have been a very popular issue among college students. Many students have gone over board with weight loss and developed many different eating disorders.

According to American Medical Journal, an estimated 10 percent of female college students suffer from a clinical or sub-clinical eating disorder, of which over half suffer from bulimia nervosa.

An estimated one in one hundred American women binges and purges to lose weight. Approximately five percent of women and one percent of men have anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, or binge eating disorder, according to the American Journal.

Kathy Picate, Florida Southern College's health advocate, talks to many different students who struggle with day-to-day eating issues.

"Its very sad to see students struggle with eating disorders," Picate said. "They have food or their weight on their mind all the time. Many people would be surprised with how many students suffer from these disorders."

Not only do women students suffer from the pressures of being thin, but men also struggle with many eating disorders.

According to Men's health magazine, studies suggest that five to ten percent of people with anorexia or bulimia are males.

continued: Eating Disorders Can Affect Anyone



New TV Show Perpetuates Anorexia Myths
Discovery News

A new VH1 show called “The Price of Beauty,” hosted by Jessica Simpson, will premiere soon. The theme of the show is the extreme measures that some women will endure to look beautiful. It’s a worthy subject, but unfortunately the series is already spreading misinformation about a serious disease: anorexia.

In one of the first episodes, Simpson and her friends interview former model Isabelle Caro, who suffers from anorexia. Caro made international news a few years ago by putting a photo of her emaciated frame on billboards. She is now an activist trying to pass a law prohibiting very thin women from becoming professional models.

Simpson told Oprah in a recent interview, "It makes me very emotional because just the pressure that women feel to be thin or to be beautiful--the pressure that the media puts on women--is so unfair and so disgusting." The show’s efforts seem sincere, but its understanding of anorexia leaves much to be desired. The concern over thin models is nothing new, to either the media or the fashion industry.

What Isabelle Caro, Jessica Simpson, and the VH1 show don’t realize is that anorexia has little or nothing to do with fashion modeling. Eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia are biological diseases, not voluntary behaviors. The idea that a model, photo of a model, or Web site can "encourage" anorexia is not supported by science or research. Images of thin people cannot "encourage" anorexia, any more than photographs of bipolar patients "encourage" bipolar disorder, or photos of diabetics "encourage" diabetes.

Though many people are convinced that anorexia is a threat to most young women because of the media images they see, that’s not what the scientific evidence says. Anorexia is a very rare and complex psychological disorder with many indications of a strong genetic component; as anorexia expert Cynthia Bulik noted in her 2007 study “The Genetics of Anorexia,” published in the Annual Review of Nutrition, “Family studies have consistently demonstrated that anorexia nervosa runs in families.” Most research studies have failed to find a cause-and-effect link between media images of thin people and eating disorders.

continued: New TV Show Perpetuates Anorexia Myths



Only The Beautiful Need Apply
Medical News Today

New study flags damaging effect of joining a sorority on body image and eating behaviors.

Undergraduate women who join a sorority are more likely to judge their own bodies from an outsider's perspective (known as self-objectification) and display higher levels of bulimic attitudes and behaviors than those who do not take part in the sorority's recruitment process. Over time, those women who join the group also show higher levels of body shame. These findings, part of Ashley Marie Rolnik's senior honors thesis at Northwestern University in the US, are published online in Springer's journal Sex Roles.

On college campuses across the US, thousands of women join sororities every year through a structured recruitment process - the sorority rush. Although these sisterhoods provide college women with opportunities for personal growth and enrichment, they have been criticized for their potential to lead their members to focus excessively and unhealthily on their appearance.

continued: Only The Beautiful Need Apply



More Eating Disorders For Women Over 30
Sun-Times

Eating disorders are usually seen as a problem of girls and young women. But experts say they're seeing more women in their 30s, 40s and even older seeking treatment for anorexia, bulimia and binge eating.

"We went, literally, from having zero at any given time to having a subgroup of anywhere from five to 10 . . . It's a big increase," said Kimberly Dennis, the medical director at Timberline Knolls, a residential treatment center in Lemont for eating disorders and substance abuse.

Lynn Grefe, chief executive officer of the National Eating Disorders Association, said the group hasn't done formal research on the trend, but, "anecdotally, we are hearing more and more cases of women over 30" seeking treatment.

continued: More Eating Disorders For Women Over 30


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