Today’s idea of eating for mental wellness represents a much different facet of health than we grew up with. In school, it was common for people to receive lessons about food groups and the importance of eating a balanced diet. However, for many, those lessons never materialized into actual practice. From a young age, we…
An eating disorder is more than just a troubled relationship with food. It is an illness that can leave devastation in its wake. And with an estimated 20 million women and 10 million men suffering from an eating disorder at some point in their life, it’s a good bet that you know someone dealing with…
Recent research has suggested a connection between attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and adult binge eating disorder. Now, a new study from Johns Hopkins University shows that there may also be a connection between childhood ADHD and loss of control eating syndrome (LOC-ES). Loss of control eating syndrome is a proposed diagnostic category for children between…
Several factors help predict the presence of the unofficial eating disorder known as orthorexia nervosa in young women, according to recent findings from a group of Polish, Italian and Australian researchers. People with orthorexia nervosa have an obsession or preoccupation with healthy eating that destabilizes mental well-being and/or damages the ability to function in everyday…
Women who struggled with disordered eating during adolescence may suffer negative socioeconomic consequences during their early adulthood, according to a new study from the University of Utah.
Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) may not be a new problem, but it is the newest form of disordered eating to be recognized by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. ARFID was included for the first time in the DSM-5, which was published in May 2013. Disordered eating has been present in the…
We now understand that people suffering from eating disorders do not have to fit the severely underweight stereotype associated with anorexia nervosa. Unfortunately, this means that it can be even more difficult to recognize and properly diagnose people who are suffering from these potentially life-threatening illnesses. One of the most insidious realities that we have…
The development of an eating disorder is believed by experts to have both a biological and an environmental component. The mix of the two influences may differ based on the individual, but there are certain factors that significantly increase a person’s risk of developing an eating disorder.
The eating disorder risk that female athletes face is intuitive and counter-intuitive at the same time. On the one hand, it’s natural to assume that athletes know how to take care of their bodies as well or better than anyone else in the world. On the other hand, many athletes are under great pressure to…
Fat talk is a term that mental health professionals sometimes use to describe spoken statements that emphasize concerns about one’s weight or make negative comparisons with other people’s weight. While many of these statements seem superficially harmless, current evidence indicates that they contribute significantly to a state of mind called body dissatisfaction. In turn, the…