Eating disorders

DEAR readers and friends, allow me to share with you our amusement and "bewilderment" with the numerous feedback and reactions to our article last week detailing some doable measures to have a healthy weight. All the while, we thought, you our readers would have wanted specifics as to how much of this or that food would fill up the recommended daily caloric allowance of a male or a female who might want to lose weight. Instead, we had a handful of text and calls asking for eating disorders, in all likelihood, from fans of the late legendary Karen Carpenter.

Anorexia nervosa is an illness that prevents the patients or the sufferer from eating enough to maintain a healthy weight. usually, anorexics (persons suffering from anorexia nervosa) , different from the word anorectic- appetite suppressant- weigh les than 85 percent of normal weigh for their age and gender. Affecting more females, their menstrual periods become irregular or may stop altogether. Patients may induce vomiting (emesis). Most of the time, these patients take a lot of laxatives or diuretics or engage in very strenuous activities in an attempt to control weight. If not attended to by a psychiatrist or attended to by a nutritionist, anorexia nervosa can lead to severe malnutrition, cachexia and even death.

Bulimia nervosa is an illness that is most commonly found in girls of later adolescence or early adulthood. It is characterized by binge-eating- consuming large quantities of food within a very short time. In an attempt to prevent weight gain, the sufferer will then try to severely restrict food intake and often resort to vomiting, laxative abuse or bone-breaking exercises. The People"s Princess Diana, allegedly admitted to have been a sufferer or victim. Bulimics can become withdrawn, moody, irritable and depressed, making social relationships difficult and unstable. It is interesting to note that bulimia may begin ateran episode of anorexia.

Binge - eating disorder. A binge is when someone eats much more food than most people eat during a similar period of time. Food consumed is not savored or enjoyed; instead the food is devoured in a frenzied manner. Foods typically consumed during binge are usually high-calorie, simple carbohydrate food that are usually avoided when a person is dieting. The sufferers are known to eat whatever food is available- some have been known to eat cat food, raw flour. Patients will go on a binge regardless of whether they are hungry or full, and will continuously eat until they are uncomfortably full. Binge eating is a very secretive affair because sufferers feel a lot of shame and embarrassment about how much they can eat The difference between bulimia and binge-eating disorder is that binge-eaters usually do not purge they don’t starve themselves or engage in an obsessive strenuous exercise activity.