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You Don't Have to Be Eating Disordered to be Thin
Margaret, an emaciated 13-year-old patient recently
sat in my office and stated she wants to be thin, despite
what her doctor and parents tell her about how she has to
gain weight. “I want to be thin and I will be thin,” she exclaimed.
"There’s nothing wrong with your intentions
to be fit and to look good,” I told her. “But, the way
you’ve chosen to go about accomplishing these goals will bring
about the opposite results. I suppose you are assuming that
the less you eat, the thinner you get,” I said. Margaret smiled
and said, “Well, of course. No surprises there.”
“Well, here’s the rub,” I went on. “As odd and
as contradictory as it may seem, the less a person eats, the
fatter she gets. And here is why………..”
- The body’s metabolic function is essential for burning
fat. The body is a machine that needs constant fueling.
If people skip meals, they damage their metabolic function
so that the metabolism slows and ceases to burn the food
that is taken in. As a result, anorexics can gain weight
on a few as 500 calories a day. The process of metabolic
shutdown is best seen in the hibernation of bears over the
winter, or in the ability of prisoners of war to remain
alive for protracted periods of time on virtually no food.
- Dieting is the worst way to lose weight. Studies show
that 95% of dieters gain back all of their weight and more
within five years.
- Dieters loss their weight in water and muscle, then gain
it back in fat. Naturally thin people do not get thin or
stay that way from dieting.
- Fact: Children and adolescents who restrict food
are at a much greater risk for becoming obese adults.
- Fact: Anorexics who eat no fat have elevated cholesterol
rates. A recent study showed that hypercholesterolemia in
anorexics is remediated through the intake of a normal amount
of fat into the diet.
It is important to understand that you need
to eat and fuel your body sensibly and predictably in order
to be and to stay thin. Self-starvation is painful and causes
depression, difficulty learning, fear and anxiety. Achieving
thinness through eating lots of balanced, varied and nutritionally
dense foods in the form of three meals a day is definitely
the way to go!
The following are some other examples of myths
and misconceptions surrounding eating disorders, eating disorder
treatment, and healthy eating: It is critical to recognize
if your thinking has been influenced by any of these misconceptions,
as these can prevent your detecting early signs of trouble
and nipping them in the bud before they become a hazard to
your health and well-being.
- Eating disorders are incurable.
- Eating disorders are about weight management.
- Anorexics are always thin and do not eat.
- Fat-free eating is healthy eating.
- Dysfunctional parenting, low self-esteem, attention seeking,
and/or media and peer pressure cause eating disorders.
- Children don’t want their eating disorder “secret” to
be discovered.
- Parents should stay out of their child’s psychotherapy
so as not to infringe on their child’s privacy and independence.
An intervening parent is an interfering parent.
- Parents should never discuss food with their disordered
child.
- Therapists breach their child patient’s confidentiality
by talking with parents.
- Once kids reach adolescence, they no longer need their
parents’ input.
Healthy eating is the ability to eat anything,
at anytime...as long as it is with moderation. Healthy eating
consists of three nutritionally dense meals a day, including
foods that are varied and that represent all the food groups.
Healthy eating is pleasurable eating; it is eating without
fear or a connection to one’s emotional well-being.
UNhealthy eating is eating that takes on an
excessive, immoderate character. It is compulsive and choiceless
eating. Restricting specific foods or food groups, skipping
meals, or dieting is as unhealthy and counterproductive as
overeating; as an example, it is as unhealthy never to let
an Oreo pass your lips as it is to eat a bag of Oreos at a
sitting. In addition, dieting damages the body’s metabolism,
making it increasingly difficult to metabolize fats and therefore
to become and remain thin. It has been shown that children
who diet are more likely to become overweight adults.
TIP: In becoming a healthy eater, learn
which foods are healthy for you. Discover foods that you like,
and eat plenty of them. Try new foods that you may not yet
have tasted.
TIP: You need not be overly concerned
about overeating or undereating when you are eating nutritionally
dense foods, particularly if you are aware and respectful
of when your body is hungry and when it is full. If you are
hungry, there is nothing wrong with eating more. You can hardly
eat too much when it comes to chicken or tuna, to soup or
salad, to vegetables or fruit. If you begin to lose track
of your ability to recognize and differentiate hunger and
satiety, you may be seeing an early warning sign of disordered
eating or eating disorders and you might do well to consider
working with a nutritionist and/or a psychotherapist.
If excess and imbalance have become a part of
your eating lifestyle and you are without an accurate gauge
for discerning when to eat and when to stop eating, you may
also find yourself feeling out of control in other life spheres
as well. Eating dysfunction may represent the behavioral tip
of an emotional iceberg, indicating underlying emotional problems
and psychological issues that may be driving a variety of
dysfunctional thinking and behaving. By attending to and resolving
these underlying issues, you reinforce your capacity not only
to rectify dysfunctional eating behaviors, but to sustain
these constructive changes, to feel more in control of your
life in general, and at peace.
When your eating gauges are off, you may also
find yourself with a limited capacity to regulate:
- how much to study versus how much to recreate,
- how long to talk on the phone when homework is waiting,
- how often to give in to others’ demands versus when to
stand your ground,
- how much to sleep or when to turn off the television.
- how much to buy and when to stop shopping
In the space below, fill in other areas of your
life where you tend to be somewhat extreme or imbalanced in
your behaviors.
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The following exercise offers an opportunity
to help you recognize and acknowledge your own personal views
about what healthy eating is.
Answer each question TRUE or FALSE:
- Healthy eating is fat-free or light eating.
- Healthy eating is eating as little as you can in order
to feel satisfied.
- It’s okay to skip meals when you are not hungry.
- It is natural to feel guilty when you eat fatty foods.
- Diets are the best and most effective way to lose weight.
- You become fat when you eat fat.
If most of your answers were TRUE, it may be
that you have been taken in by the many misconceptions and
myths surrounding healthy eating.
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About the Author:
Psychotherapist Abigail H. Natenshon has specialized in the
treatment of eating disorders with individuals, families,
and groups for the past 31years. She is the author of When
Your Child Has An Eating Disorder, A Step-by-Step Workbook
For Parents And Other Caregivers, Jossey-Bass, 1999. Based
on hundreds of successful outcomes, this book shepherds concerned
parents step-by-step through the processes of eating disorder
recognition, confronting the child, finding the most effective
treatment for patient and family, and evaluating and insuring
a timely recovery. A guide to eating disorder prevention,
this book is useful to parents, health professionals and school
personnel alike in countering the pervasive epidemic of unhealthy
eating and body image concerns, and destructive media and
peer influences. Her work can be reviewed further at www.empoweredparents.com
and www.empoweredkidZ.com
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