Karen’s Free Health and Fitness Tips

The two main causes of eating disorders are fashion and culture. In other words, without fashion or culture, the pressure to be thin would not be so pervasive in modern society. For many years, fashion models have been as thin as possible, and people who weren’t underweight (by health standards) were considered to be “too fat” to be models. If you just focused on the world of modeling, you would see the intense pressure to be thin taking its toll.

However, this has affected more than just models. Modern culture as a whole is constantly barraged with images of very thin women, and girls who see those models and view them as ideals of beauty are conditioned to think they are supposed to look like that. Then, once men are conditioned to see fashion models as ideals of beauty, they start to think that girls they date should look that thin too. Because of this, society’s views on weight have gotten skewed, and even normal girls at a normal weight feel inadequate when they have to compare themselves to girls who are starving themselves and actually being noticed more by men.

Childhood overweight and obesity has more than tripled since 1980. Among children and teens aged 6-19 years, 18 percent are considered overweight or obese. As alarming as these statistics are however, there is another growing concern among children that, without treatment, may result in potentially fatal conditions. In the past decade, researchers have started looking at eating disorders in children, why they are occurring at such young ages, and how they can be effectively treated.

Eating disorders are illnesses that cause severe changes in eating behaviors and related thoughts about body image. The two main types of eating disorders are anorexia nervosa or anorexia, and bulimia nervosa or bulimia. However, many children affected do not fit all of the requirements for these specific disorders. Like adults, eating disorders in children are usually a combination of factors - physical and emotional. On one hand, dieting in young children is instrumental in eating disorder development; on the other hand, it can be a method of weight control for obese children. The family eating environment and influence of parents are important factors in childhood eating disorders. Comments on a child’s weight or body shape, and an emphasis on thinness may contribute to negative attitudes about their body. This may result in long-term problems with body image and self esteem. Mothers tend to have a greater affect on their children’s eating and self image, especially in girls. It is estimated that one in every 100 girls and young women may have anorexia. Symptoms may include exercising a lot, eating little food, vomiting after meals, and a focus on eating, but not enjoying food. You may not realize right away that there is anything wrong. It is common for children to hide their weight loss by wearing loose fitting clothes. You should be concerned if your child complains of being fat, doesn’t eat meals, or makes excuses for a significant weight change. An eating disorder is a serious problem. Pressuring a child to eat will generally not change their behavior. What parents should do:

An eating disorder is a condition in which the sufferer eats too much, too little, too unhealthily, or otherwise. It is seen as both a psychological condition and as a physical condition, since it affects both the mind and the body. Psychologists have found several types of eating disorders. They include Anorexia Nervosa, Beriberi, Binge Eating Disorder, Bulimia Nervosa, Hyperphagia, Kleine-Levin Syndrome, Rumination, Orthorexia and Pica.

Of these types, the most common are Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa. Anorexia Nervosa is an eating disorder that prompts those affected to starve themselves. Teenage girls are the usual victims of this disorder especially during the onset of puberty. They become so conscious of their figures that the slightest remark hinting that they might be “fat” triggers a diet that is close to starvation. They lessen their food intake and become very skinny. But sufferers of Anorexia Nervosa, however, assume they are always overweight.

Meanwhile, Bulimia Nervosa victims take in large quantity of foods in a short span of time and then vomit to avoid weight gain. This type of eating disorder proves hazardous. As a result, sufferers attain yellowish teeth that become overly sensitive to both cold and hot, dry skin, irregular monthly period for girls, and a whole list of other afflictions.

Eating disorders have long been a serious problem among people of all ages. However, this disease usually begins somewhere in the pre-teen stages of life, and although many adolescent boys suffer with this disorder, it usually affects and is much more severe in young girls.

People who do suffer from an eating disorder like to place blame on factors such as television and family life-styles. Although these situations do influence eating disorders, the basis for this disease lies within the person whom it is affecting.

Most girls and boys who suffer from an eating disorder usually are unhappy with themselves and their own performance in life. With girls, eating disorders may arise if they do not succeed in activities such as cheerleading or gymnastics, or if they do not seem to attract the attention of boys. Many girls believe that they cannot be beautiful unless they are thin, sometimes due to naturally thin girls that surround them both in real life and in fashion. For boys, causes may also result from sports that are weight orientated like wrestling.

Eating disorders have very many effects on the sufferers. The effects can be divided into mental, spiritual and physical.

The mental effects can be associated with different levels of anxiety (from moderate to very severe), depression, and difficulty to focus on tasks, low span of attention, lethargy or impulsivity and distortion of thoughts.

One of the very specific effects of eating disorders is a distorted body image when people see a wrong picture of themselves and others. This mental problem is called “broken eye syndrome”.

This is when the sufferer sees in the mirror a much fatter reflection of themselves then they actually are. And when they look at other people they judge them according to the person’s weight and body looks. Other people can also look bigger to them then the person really is.

Spiritual effects of eating disorders can be associated with loss of self-identity or insight, inability to maintain healthy relationship with people and loss of coping strategies.

Eating disorders may very well start off as a preoccupation with food and body weight but there is definitely much more to these than just foods. Eating disorders usually are long-standing illnesses, which require long-term treatment and are often accompanied by other psychiatric disorders, such as anxiety, depression and drug abuse.

Eating disorders can be fatal. They can inflict life-threatening medical complications including serious heart conditions (low blood pressure, slow heart rate, palpitations and heart failure) and kidney failure, which may ultimately lead to death. Learning about the disease and what causes it may save us from these threatening complications.

What Factors Contribute to the Development of Eating Disorders?

Eating disorders have been found to be influenced by a variety of factors. Recent studies show the interconnection between the problem and certain biological, psychological and socio-cultural factors.

. Biological factors. Studies indicate that certain people may have a genetic predisposition to develop an eating disorder and that it probably runs in the family. Several researches prove that having a biological mother or sister with an eating disorder (anorexia, bulimia, binge eating) increases an individual’s likelihood of developing the same disease. A study involving twins also support this conclusion.

It is proven now that media can influence the beginning of eating disorders in some people. This is evident especially in children and teens who can easily be lulled into the wrong image of what the human body is supposed to look like.

A very serious concern is that tiny little children as young as 8 year old are now contracting anorexia and the media are to blame. The images of thinness and unreal sexual images in the media do influence children’s minds which in turn lead them into an eating disorder.

Early exposure to sexualized images encourage young women to see themselves as objects and value themselves for how they look rather then a whole person. Their values shift to the side where being beautiful and sexually attractive substitutes for being an individual with a strong sense of self. These inevitably lead young women to pursue thinness and artificial beauty that they see on the covers of magazines on TV and in the newspapers.

Very often girls have no understanding that what they’re pursuing is only an unattainable image provided by the media to entertain their readers, attract buyers and sell the products they advertise or to send some other frivolous messages to the public.

Eating disorders, foremost among them Anorexia Nervosa, afflict upwards of 8 out of every 100,000 people each year; 40% of this statistic is composed of adolescent females between the ages of 15 and 19.

An eating disorder is defined as “a complex compulsion to eat in a way which disturbs physical, mental and psychological health”. This compulsion can have a multitude of different effects depending upon the particular person who feels it. The victim may be compelled to eat more than is healthy, or far less; the victim may eat vast quantities of food and then, through forced vomiting or overuse of laxatives, cause the food to evacuate the body without being digested. This is partly what makes eating disorders so hard to diagnose and treat - there is no specific set of symptoms and, due to this, the practitioner in question may need a large amount of time to formulate a proper mode of treatment.

Eating disorders can be a threat to your own life. It can choke the life of people especially at the stage of teens. This stage can be really bad in case physical change. It brings a change, which can ruin the life.

Most of the teens are unaware of the ill effects of eating disorders, which bring them to a stage of unconsciousness such as stress, depression, obesity and hypertension at early age. Teenagers get disheartened after getting trapped into these kinds of problems. They start feeling inferior to their friends and family, which results in depression and stress.

So, parents should actively participate by helping out their children to get rid of problems in life. They should seek to each and every activity performed by their child. They should understand their child and find the reason behind such problems. A child should be made strong so that he or she does not feel lonely in their life. This would happen by loving and understanding your child. At this stage, a child should not be scolded. Even you can help him or her in academics because children who are caught in the trap of problems are not able to concentrate. And if there is no improvement in your child, you should immediately seek help from a professional. Sit with your child; tell him or her to follow a dietary plan or to exercise to reduce the plumpness.