The Effects Of Eating Disorders On Health

My current view on food is that it creates a sense of comfort and fulfillment, yet this was not always the case. During my teenage years I struggled with an ongoing eating disorder. During that time I viewed food as a threat, or an enemy. As part of my recovery process, I was given a task to make friends with food. I first approached this task with a closed mind, finding a wrong with every meal I ate. My view changed completely when my friends took me out to a vegan diner for a burger and sweet potato fries meal.

After watching the PBS documentary dying to be thin I learned a number of new things about eating disorders. The affects an eating disorder can have on the human body are catastrophic in all aspects. Research shows that eating disorders start as early as eight years old in the brain. Children have the beginning ideas at about this age and by a couple years later are fully submerged in bulimia or anorexia. There are different types of eating disorders some people over eat and try to make themselves seem unattractive. While others actually control their food so greatly they lose a massive amount of weight. Either one of these types of eating disorders have negative effects on a person’s body. Unfortunately, most people suffering from eating disorders have been sexually

Binge Eating Disorder is a recent addition to the DSM-5. This disorder is characterized by regular episodes of binge eating. An individual experiencing this disorder will usually not Binge use compensatory behaviors, such as self-induced vomiting or over-exercising after they binge eat. Many people with Binge Eating Disorder are overweight or obese. (Butcher, Hooley, J. M., & Mineka, 2013).

Eating Disorders: disorders characterized by abnormal eating habits (ex: anorexia nervosa and bulimia). Anorexia is “an emotional disorder characterized by an obsessive desire to lose weight by refusing to eat (cnn.com).” Bulimia is an eating disorder in which a lot of food is consumed in a short amount of time, and is often followed by feelings of guilt or shame. This leads to those people to throw up the food. Today, so many girls believe that they need to be perfect so that they fit into society. This is wrong. Perfect is not real. Sure, some models seem like they are perfect and happy, but the truth is they aren’t. Sometimes, they starve themselves and some have even died because of this. However, this isn’t

Eating Disorders are conditions in which involves irregular eating habits, either insufficient or excessive food, that affects inimical the body’s image and mental health (Wikipedia). It affects men and women of all ages, but it has a greater impact among adolescences and young adults. In the United States, 24 million Americans are battling eating disorders, in which 1 million are males and 23 million are females. An individual who portraits this condition may have an irrational self-image thought that impinged on an individual’s life and affects their health by disrupting body functions and daily activities (National Eating Disorders Association).

Eating disorders are very common in today’s society and can cause death if an intervention isn’t performed. While working in the hospital and being part of the wrestling team in high school I’ve witness several people with this disorder. Anorexia and bulimia are the most prevalent and generally are accompanied by another psychological disorder. Many individuals suffer from more than one disorder and almost half of people who have anorexia develop bulimia or bulimic patterns. Although there is no specific cause we do know that women are more likely to suffer from anorexia or bulimia. The key to fighting anorexia and bulimia is to identify who is at risk, identify the symptoms, identify the warning signs, and seek treatment.

Eating disorders are becoming more common in the Modern Era. Millions of people all across the U.S. are being diagnosed with an eating disorder. Each eating disorder that an individual can be diagnosed with has different characteristics. When questioning if someone has an eating disorder, the individual typically begins to eat differently than usual if even at all and cares more about their appearance and body weight. There are different stages to one’s illness that determines the severity that the illness has on an individual. The DSM-5 has found the “anorexia nervosa is a mental and physical disease that was recognized in France in the 19th century, usurped for England by Queen Victoria’s physician and subsequently

Physical exercise is inarguably healthy for the normal body functions as well as the overall good physical health. Consequently, many people take exercises to achieve the ultimate benefit of good health. However, a compulsive or compensatory need to take exercise could be an indicator of underlying problem of disordered eating habits. It pragmatic to monitor one’s exercising habits in order to increase chances of early detection of any underlying disordered eating habits.

Eating disorders appear to be something that is more common in this country and ignored. Media portrays people do be a certain body frame and it is talked about who has the right body shape and who does not. This makes it extremely difficult for people, especially women. Media and other people put a huge pressure on women and young girls to have a certain body image and shape to be “beautiful” or more attractive especially to the other gender. This can be a lot of the times when eating disorders come into play. From the video on the dancers, they talked a lot about how it was ideal to be extremely skinny. A woman was so skinny that her bones were popping out and other dancers were jealous and envious that she had that body and they did not. Others want to know how she got to be that way when it was truly unhealthy. One thing that people and society needs to pay attention to is these stigmas and pressures them put on other people. People can go to great lengths and put themselves at risk to live up to this unrealistic idea.

Bulimia Nervosa is an eating disorder that causes people to eat large amounts of food at one time, then they rid their body of the excess calories by purging. They do this in many ways such as the misuse of laxatives and self-induced vomiting. Bulimia usually occurs because the person feels as if they lost control of themselves while eating. They force themselves to rid of the extra calories because it makes them feel as if they have regained control of themselves. Bulimia has many different causes such as low self-esteem, and emotional problems. This disorder has many different risk factors such as anxiety, impulsivity, and anorexia. Bulimia has plenty of complications such as irregular heartbeats, low blood potassium, heart failure and death. There has been plenty of research done on this behavioral disorder to show that the effects of bulimia can be very crucial if not treated as soon as possible. The symptoms of Bulimia can cause people to change their behavior, this essay will discuss how the more vibrant symptoms such as low self-esteem, depression, fear, and disorders can cause the behavior to change.

As a result of eating disorders, women could get other problems of their body, such as alopecia and malnutrition. If a female is suffering from eating disorders, she might feel unconfident and negative because of her concern of body image. Her social relationships might be affected because it could be hard to socialize with people who has healthy eating habit. She might also suffer from dizziness and tiredness in daily life since she doesn’t consume enough food or consume too much food which will also damage her digestive system. Eating disorders also have negative effects on mental health, as well as physical health. Women who suffer from eating disorders are more likely to have depression since they are too strict about their body image.

It is evident that the number of teenagers suffering from an eating disorder will continue to increase as the future generations become more and more developed. The effects will most likely become even more worse then it already is. Eating disorders will increase due to the media, everywhere you are you always see commercials, advertisements etc and you see a skinny or really buff model. This makes females and males feel more insecure about themselves, just last week the Victorias Secret fashion show was on tv and this showed society how all models are supposed to look skinny and tall. Females today are more effected to suffer from an eating disorder than men. The most significant detail I have learned through my research was that eating disorders

This contributes more so to anorexia nervosa, when the victim is obsessed with losing weight frequently, even when clearly malnourished. “...obsessed with weight loss and fear of becoming fat, anoretics see normal folds of flesh as ‘fat’ that must be eliminated” (Farley). These sufferers see the normal amount of skin and fat as unhealthy and they will do anything to remove it. Body image is based on a significant amount of emotion that is produced from the brain’s perception. “Distorted body image is a reflection of poor self-esteem, based largely on emotion” (Reville). The cause of these emotions rests on the awareness of the reflection of the body, and the victim is unable to release the negative thoughts plaguing their minds. Diseased images cause diseased thoughts, which are harmful to the brain and body. “Most people who suffer from an eating disorder have a distorted image of their own bodies. When they look in the mirror they don’t like what they see” (Reville). When these thoughts appear in the sufferer’s mind, they very rarely leave, which can cause the victim to harm themselves and others. Eating disorders have much to do with the brain; they affect the brain, which in turn affects everything

At least “every 62 minutes someone dies” as a direct result from suffering an eating disorder (“EDC 1”). Eating disorders like binge eating, Bulimia, and Anorexia, include strange behaviors when it comes to food.Eating disorders affects their mentality, and how the person visually looks like. Some eating disorders are caused by stress which eventually ends up leading to depression. Many eating disorders are caused because of how the media glorifies them. In all the magazines all the women are extremely thin which causes many women and young adults to get Bulimia, Anorexia or any other types of eating disorders.There is a good percentage of people which are in denial about their eating disorder, because they don

Eating disorders have been around for well over a century, and affect tons of people around your neighborhood, town, county, state, or even country that walk, talk, and act just like you. The two big dogs of eating disorders are anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, which affect young boys and girls alike that cannot control their feelings when it comes to food. Some decide that food is not their thing, which is known as anorexia; and, some people have a love/hate relationship with food, better known as bulimia. Both of these disorders have consequences and are tough to give up without help from a responsible adult. The two dominate unhealthy eating disorders, anorexia and bulimia, are vastly spreading, predominately damaging young women across the nation.