There was an interesting article a couple of days ago in The Harvard Crimson. It was a column written by Rebecca Cooper who wrote about disordered eating as a more serious and common problem than the complete package of an eating disorder.
She wrote about a person's unhealthy relationship with food which included exercising incessantly, constantly adding calories, switching to a vegan diet, and always scooping out bagels. The author points to a study by Self Magazine in partnership with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill estimating that one in 10 women between the ages of 24-45 suffer from anorexia or bulimia while three out of four suffer from disordered eating. Other studies suggest that this figure is higher for college age students.
Cooper isn't as concerned that habits from disordered eating may eventually result in eating disorders. Rather, she is more concerned about the waste of time and energy it takes to be so focused on food.
I don't disagree completely but I suspect that some of those behaviors could also become habitual and lead to anorexia. People who develop eating disorders typically live in a state of perpetual emotional turmoil. They want to be in control but feel they are not and mix their anxieties and feelings of failure with the way they look. They become preoccupied, obsessed with food and weight.
People with eating disorders are often angry, legitimately, just like Sydne in her story, but because they seek approval and fear criticism, they don't express their anger – at least directly. They don't know how to express it in healthy ways. They turn it against themselves by starving or stuffing.
It seems to me that if I think like Cooper most of my colleagues and friends have disordered eating issues because they do worry about calories. Does that mean everyone on the Ornish Diet has disordered eating? I always thought these folks were trying to lose weight for better health because they were over weight. Of course the nature of these symptoms varies from person to person. Even so disordered eating just doesn't add up for me. It's a meaningless label that makes good press.
Interested in your tinking about disordered eating. Just thinking about it could mean that everyone on Weight Watchers also has a problem. How do you draw the line?
