The Prevalence, Etiology, And Treatment Of Eating Disorders

This paper is in reference to eating disorders in African American women, and how they differ to those of other minority groups. Through research, it was found that eating disorders are not as known in African American women, or women of minority due to cultural differences. Different studies were analyzed of African American women at different colleges, to verify that eating disorders were prevalent in the sample groups. It was concluded in several studies that obesity rates, racial identity, and body image were the determining factors of the eating disorders.

Today there has been an increase of eating disorders among the African American female population. Research has found that African American girls as young as nine years old have been showing early signs of eating disorders. Some African American women struggle with anorexia but the majority suffer from bulimia and binge eating disorder. (Talleyrand, 2010) The African American women who suffer from eating disorders usually come from households that struggle with obesity. While there is not a significant amount of research about eating disorders among

Can We Better Understand Eating Disorders, Namely Anorexia Nervosa, Through A Biomedical Model Or By Socio-cultural Analysis?

Topic: What is causing young adults and teens to develop eating disorders and how can we help them?

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.

It has been found that eating disorders are most common in the western and industrialized culture where food is abundant. This is because these individuals attach a lot of importance to their physical appearance and are willing to do anything to get the dream figure. An eating disorder is not just watching what one eats and exercising on a daily basis but is rather an illness that causes serious disturbances in eating behaviour, such as great and harmful cutback of the consumption of food as well as feelings of serious anxiety about their body shape or mass. They would start to stop themselves to go out anywhere just so that they could work out and burn all of the calories of a meal or snack that they had scoffed earlier. Two of the most common eating disorders are anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. The regular description of a patient with either disease would be a youthful white female, with an upper social standing in a predictably socially competitive environment.

When one thinks of the ideal physique and what it takes to achieve this, most simply go to diet modification and exercise. However when it comes to adolescents, the need to fit in is immediate and often time fast measures are taken to achieve what they consider as the perfect body. Adolescent culture is ever changing but when combined with home cultural views the stress that it can place on a teenager to conform can lead to development of disordered eating. There are few studies on Asian American’s (AA) and their cultural views on weight, however much is being learned. AA’s have always been pen-pointed as being the group that have maintained cultural values through the generations. AA with disordered eating have shown the need to please parents and achieve not only academically but also in appearance (i.e., presenting oneself in a certain way), and this is linking family pride is linked to their children’s achievement and appearance (Tsong & Smart, 2015). Even with all we know, pathways to disordered eating are complex and have various outliers, and still are not very well understood (Streiegel-Moore & Bulik, 2007) Just about all patterns of disordered eating begin with dieting, unrealistic outcomes, and problematic views of the world around (Zastrow & Kirst-Ashman, 2016).

This is especially true among minority group women who report acculturative stress (Perez, et al. 2001). Evidence contrary to these findings indicate that ethnic identification no longer represents a protective factor for eating disorders because all ethnic groups have acculturated the mainstream values related to body image and thinness ideals.

Forty-three published abstracts were retrieved from PubMed database and three were retrieved from CINAHL database, for a total of 46 articles for potential inclusion in the review. Three duplicates were then removed, yielding 43 articles for potential inclusion. Two articles were excluded because they are commentaries. Three articles were excluded because they are reviews. One article was excluded because it is a case study. 14 articles were excluded because they do not include a mindful eating intervention. Two articles were excluded because they do not focus on weight or weight-related co-morbidities. One article was excluded because it focuses on anorexia nervosa or bulimia. One article was

Eating disorders effecting American women have been on the rise in recent year. The alarming trend of increasing cases of these psychological disorders has sparked intellectual inquiry into their shared features. The rising amount of societal pressures that many women around the country feel have caused a lot of women to turn to food as a coping mechanism. Whether it is control exhorted over food or eating as a means to feel numb, women look to food to make themselves feel a certain way. Food, in modern culture, represents much more than just as a means of nourishing ones body. How individuals use food as a copping mechanism has in part lead to the exploitation of food. Three major eating disorders; Anorexia, Bulimia, and Binge Eating

Eating Disorders (ED) are a real “epidemic” plaguing industrialized and developed societies, affecting mostly adolescents and young adults (Benas & Gibb 2011). In general, the flawed thinking of people suffering from such diseases is characterized by an obsession with perfection of the body. The impact that eating disorders have on women has always been more prevalent than on males. (Benas & Gibb 2011; Polivy & Herman 2002). The culture-bound syndromes are constellations of signs and symptoms, that are restricted to certain the cultural pressure to lose weight, which is considered a key element of the etiology of these disorders, therefore, along with biological, psychological and family factors have been generating an excessive preoccupation with the body, an abnormal fear of becoming fat and anxiety markedly accompanied by changes in the body schema. These are therefore the characteristics of Bulimia Nervosa (BN) and Anorexia Nervosa (AN). The following ten literature review attempt to demonstrate and support the theory of cognitive approach on eating disorders, briefly understanding the neurobiological mechanisms.

Although a great deal of early research on body image and eating disorders focused on upper/middle class Caucasians living in America or under the influence of Western ideals, many researchers are realizing that eating disorders are not isolated to this particular group. They are also realizing the differences in body image between occur in different races and genders (Pate, Pumariega, Hester 1992). Recently, several studies have shown that eating disorders transcend these specific guidelines, and increasingly, researchers are looking at male/female differences, cross-cultural variation and variation within cultures as well. It is impossible to broach the concept of body image without

In longing to reach the norm many people fall victim to these detrimental illnesses. Sadly, women are more subject to these eating disorders than men, the number of men suffering from eating disorders is on the rise. Our culture puts pressure on each of its inhabitants to attain this ideal body type that is unrealistic for most people. The images that pollute television and magazines make us all feel inadequate if we don't meet the credentials of slenderness; therefore, continuing the role of our society in the development of eating disorders.

Brewerton, Timothy D. "Eating disorders, trauma, and comorbidity: Focus on PTSD." Eating disorders 15.4 (2007): 285-304.

Hudson, Hirripi, Pope and Kessler’s (2007) research indicates that the average onset of anorexia nervosa is 19 years old, but can develop as young as 14 years old, and women are more likely to develop anorexia nervosa than men. Some studies indicate that anorexia affects whites more than Hispanics, African Americans and Asians; however it crosses cultures and socially diverse populations (APA, 2013). According to the DSM 5, Anorexia nervosa predominantly occurs in developed, high-income countries such as in the United States, as well as in many European countries, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. Individuals who present with weight concerns that develop eating and feeding disorders varies substantially across cultural contexts. One study indicated that that “the ‘spread’ of Western values regarding slimness (fat phobia) is primarily responsible for the development of anorexia nervosa in non-Western societies” (Rieger et al., 2001). Rieger et al (2001) also looked at the medical records of Asian women and found the absence of fat phobia; the rationale for dietary restriction was commonly related to other external factors. The WHO (2004) also reports that female athletes, ballet students, fashion models and culinary students are at risk of developing anorexia nervosa; unhealthy dieting and society’s