How many eating disorders are there?

Nobody can live without food and drink for very long. Receiving enough nutrition is as important to our bodies as the air we breathe, yet our relationship with food can go through major peaks and troughs over time.

It’s estimated that 1.25 million people in the UK suffer from an eating disorder. Our ever-evolving relationship with food means that a final, universal understanding of eating disorders may never arrive. This makes accurate diagnosis and treatment for eating disorders imperative to healthcare professionals.

This blog aims to outline the most common eating disorders and to encourage healthier relationships with food.

How are eating disorders defined?

Eating disorders are defined as food-related conditions that cause massive disturbances in a person’s eating habits. An eating disorder is tied together with distressing thoughts and emotions.

It might be easy to presume that our understanding of eating disorders stems from more modern obsessions of body image, but some of the earliest-defined eating disorders in the Western world stretch back to the 12th century.

We are thankful for continuous research into the indisputably important relationship between ourselves and the sustenance we need for survival.

Almost one in ten people in the US will have an eating disorder in their lifetime. Recognising an eating disorder in a person near and dear to us can be heartbreaking, but if we aren’t eating right, our health and our fate are doomed to suffer.

Who is at risk for eating disorders?

Eating disorders certainly don’t discriminate. They affect people of all ages, sizes, genders and ethnic backgrounds. As the body of eating disorder research grows, their complexities unravel. People with eating disorders can be both over or underweight or exist in a person with a weight that’s considered normal.

Basically, you can’t really tell if someone has an eating disorder just by looking at them. A deeper analysis and a broadened, empathetic outlook are paramount to understanding them.

A list of the most common eating disorders

Eating disorders cannot be self-diagnosed, so please be sure to complete assessments with healthcare providers if you’re on the fence. Some of the most common eating disorders include:

Anorexia nervosa

Anorexia nervosa, usually just shortened to anorexia, is probably the immediate example that comes to someone’s mind as they try to paint a mental picture of an eating disorder. Its symptoms include:

• Low body-mass index
• Denial of hunger
• Poor nutritional status
• Extreme fear of becoming fat

We’ve seen anorexia nervosa depicted in popular movies, and it can wreak havoc for athletes and people performing activities that require an overall thin-ness. As an example, some research has shown it affects 4% of an analysed group of dancers. It affects more women than men and is a serious threat to a suffering person’s health if it isn’t treated.

Binge eating disorder

Binge eating disorder is a general loss of control over what you choose to eat. It’s the most common eating disorder in the US, and its symptoms can include:

• Eating even when you’re full or not hungry
• Eating to the point of discomfort
• Feeling guilty or distressed about your eating.

The sense of guilt or embarrassment that comes with binge eating can sometimes hold a person back from speaking to a medical professional or nutritionist. If this is the case, just opening up to a friend or loved one can be a great springboard into pertinent and honest conversations.

Bulimia nervosa

Bulimia nervosa is a serious eating disorder and is tragic and disturbing to witness in a person. A person who has bulimia typically binge eats and then uses extreme methods of vomiting or misuse of laxatives to “purge” their system. A purging disorder in itself may sometimes be linked with a person suffering from bulimia nervosa.

The description of these symptoms might sound very extreme for a new reader, but bulimia accounts for almost 20% of all diagnosed eating disorders in the UK, making it sadly one of the more common eating disorders. It is a life-threatening eating disorder, and as a person binge eats, they can often develop deeper psychological issues that affect how and what they eat.

Night eating syndrome

Night eating disorder is characterised by hyperphagia, or extreme insatiable hunger from evening to night time. A person suffering from this often consumes 25% or more of their daily calories after dinner. The definition also suggests they will awaken from nightly sleep to eat food two or more times a week.

The fact that a sufferer will break their regular sleep pattern to eat sadly lends this disorder to other dangerous sleep-related disorders like parasomnia and sleepwalking habits. It has a prevalence that affects 1.5% of the population of the United States.

Orthorexia

A person suffering from orthorexia has an unhealthy obsession with eating food they deem as “pure.” The etymology of orthorexia comes from the Greek “ortho”, meaning correct, and orexi, meaning appetite.

Considering what you eat as “pure” or “impure” is a dangerous path to tread. A food being “pure” suggests that it is clean, or unmixed, which simply isn’t realistic. Vegetables can’t grow if they don’t have contact with “un-pure” dirt, which hopefully goes some way to illustrate the dangers of treating your relationship with food so harshly.

Orthorexia treatment is incredibly important to help change an outlook that is too strict on the fuel you put in your body. Tragic outcomes await a person so harsh on themselves that they consider self-preservation instincts in arbitrary terms of pure and impure.

OSFED

OSFED is an acronym that stands for ‘other specified feeding or eating disorder.’ As research into eating disorders evolves, new classifications enter the DSM-5. OSFED sometimes contains classifications that are not yet there, encompassing things like overeating, self-induced vomiting, and body image positivity (when done to a dangerous degree).

It can encompass conditions that might have previously been in the “Not otherwise specified (NOS)” category. OSFED is not yet classified as an eating disorder, though as time goes by, we will hopefully grow to understand it better. OSFED is growingly considered a mental health condition and not simply a lifestyle choice. OFSED is a good representation of the complex and myriad nature of eating disorder diagnosis.

Pica syndrome and rumination disorder

Two of the most disturbing eating disorders to witness in a person are pica syndrome and rumination disorder. Pica syndrome is when a person chooses to eat things that are not considered foodstuff. Some common materials that are swallowed are ice, clay (in geophagia) and faecal matter.

Rumination disorder is the effortless regurgitation of the food a person eats, usually within around 15 minutes after consumption. One piece of research from Germany highlights how pica can be more common if recurring rumination disorder is also present.

Pica syndrome is usually a manifestation of a deep medical condition, which is most often iron deficiency anaemia. Pica syndrome is harrowing to observe and is often overlooked by medical professionals. Rumination disorder treatment also needs a holistic approach and can require a person to relearn and reevaluate how and why we digest food.

I need help with an eating disorder

The short catalogue of eating disorders we’ve presented goes some way to illustrate the complexity and ever-evolving nature of eating disorders. If you or someone you love requires eating disorder treatment, we’re here for you.

At Banbury Lodge, we have a range of therapies ready to help a sufferer overcome an eating disorder. Our staff provides holistic eating care in a safe, supportive environment. Our aftercare plan helps you and your loved ones to overcome difficult moments.

We’re only one decision away from helping you to a healthier, nutritionally structured lifestyle. Please get in touch with us for the care you need.